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ACROSS 
ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Narrative  of  the  Fifth  Thule  Expedition 

By 
KNUD  RASMUSSEN 


WITH  64  ILLUSTRATIONS 
AND  4  MAPS 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK— LONDON 
1927 


Copyright,  1937 

to 
.  P.  Putnam's 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  early  morning  on  the  summit  of  East  Cape,  the 
steep  headland  that  forms  the  eastern  extremity  of 
Siberia. 

The  first  snow  has  already  settled  on  the  heights,  giving 
one's  thoughts  the  first  cool  touch  of  autumn.  The  air  is 
keen  and  clear;  not  a  breeze  ruffles  the  waters  of  Bering 
Strait,  where  the  pack  ice  glides  slowly  northward  with 
the  current. 

The  landscape  has  a  calm  grandeur  all  its  own ;  far  away 
in  the  sun-haze  of  the  horizon  rises  Great  Diomede  Island, 
here  forming  the  boundary  between  America  and  Asia. 

From  where  I  stand,  I  look  from  one  continent  to 
another;  for  beyond  Great  Diomede  lies,  like  a  bank  of 
blue  fog,  another  island,  the  Little  Diomede,  which  belongs 
to  Alaska. 

All  before  me  lies  bathed  in  the  strong  light  of  sun  and 
sea,  forming  a  dazzling  contrast  to  the  land  behind  me. 
Here  lies  the  flat,  marshy  tundra,  apparently  a  land  of 
dead  monotony,  but  in  reality  a  plain-realm,  with  the  life 
of  the  plain  in  game  and  sounds;  a  lowland  which,  un- 
broken by  any  range  of  hills,  extends  through  a  world  of 
rivers  and  lakes  to  places  with  a  distant  ring,  to  the 
Lena  Delta,  and,  farther,  farther  on,  beyond  Cape 
Chelyushkin,  to  regions  that  lie  not  far  from  my  own  land. 

At  the  foot  of  the  hill  I  have  just  ascended  I  see  a  crowd 
of  Tchukchi  women  on  foot,  dressed  in  skins  of  curious 
cut;  they  have  on  their  backs  bags  made  of  reindeer  skin 
which  they  are  filling  with  berries  and  herbs.  They  fit, 


iv  INTRODUCTION 

as  an  item  of  detail,  so  picturesquely  into  the  great  expanse 
that  I  continue  to  gaze  at  them  until  they  are  lost  to  sight 
among  the  green  slopes  of  the  valley. 

On  a  narrow  spit  of  land,  with  pack  ice  to  the  one  side 
and  the  smooth  waters  of  the  lagoon  on  the  other,  lies  the 
village  or  township  of  Wahlen.  It  is  only  now  beginning 
to  wake;  and  one  by  one  the  cooking-fires  are  lighted  in  the 
dome-shaped  tents  of  walrus  hide. 

Not  far  from  the  coast  town,  clearly  silhouetted  on  the 
skyline,  a  flock  of  tame  reindeer  move  slowly  along  the 
crest  of  a  hill,  nibbling  the  moss  as  they  go,  while  herds- 
men, uttering  quaint  far-sounding  cries,  surround  them 
and  drive  them  down  to  the  new  feeding  grounds. 

To  all  these  people,  this  is  an  ordinary  day,  a  part  of 
their  everyday  life;  to  me,  an  adventure  in  which  I  hardly 
dare  believe.  For  this  landscape  and  these  people  mean, 
to  me,  that  I  am  in  Siberia,  west  of  the  last  Eskimo  tribe, 
and  that  the  Expedition  has  now  been  carried  to  its  close. 

The  height  on  which  I  stand,  and  the  pure  air  which 
surrounds  me,  give  me  a  wide  outlook,  and  I  see  our 
sledge  tracks  in  the  white  snow  out  over  the  edge  of  the 
earth's  circumference,  through  the  uttermost  lands  of 
men  to  the  North.  I  see,  as  in  a  mirage,  the  thousand 
little  native  villages  which  gave  substance  to  the  journey. 
And  I  am  filled  with  a  great  joy;  we  have  met  the  great 
adventure  which  always  awaits  him  who  knows  how  to 
grasp  it,  and  that  adventure  was  made  up  of  all  our  mani- 
fold experiences  among  the  most  remarkable  people  in  the 
world! 

Slowly  we  have  worked  our  way  forward  by  unbeaten 
tracks,  and  everywhere  we  have  increased  our  knowledge. 

How  long  have  those  sledge  journeys  been? — counting 
our  road  straight  ahead  together  with  the  side  excursions 
up  inland  and  out  over  frozen  seas,  now  hunting  game, 


I 


DOGS  WHICH  MADE  THE  WHOLE  JOURNEY  FROM   HUDSON   BAY    TO     POINT  HOPE, 

ALASKA 


INTRODUCTION  v 

and  now  seeking  out  some  isolated  and  remote  people? 
Say,  20,000  miles;  more  or  less, — nearly  the  circum- 
ference of  the  earth.  Yet  how  little  that  matters,  for  it 
was  not  the  distances  that  meant  anything  to  us!  One 
forgets  to  count  miles  after  three  and  a  half  years  of 
constant  go,  go,  go, — and  tries  only  to  keep  in  mind  the 
accumulating  experiences. 

In  my  joy  in  having  been  permitted  to  take  this  long 
sledge  journey,  my  thoughts  turn  involuntarily  to  a 
contrasting  enterprise  ending  also  in  Alaska,  where  last 
Spring,  people  were  awaiting  the  visit  of  daring  aviators 
from  the  other  side  of  the  globe.  And  from  my  heart  I 
bless  the  fate  that  allowed  me  to  be  born  at  a  time  when 
Arctic  exploration  by  dog  sledge  was  not  yet  a  thing  of 
the  past.  In  this  sudden  retrospect,  kindled  by  the  great 
backward  view  from  East  Cape,  indeed,  I  bless  the  whole 
journey,  forgetting  hardship  and  chance  misfortune  by 
the  way,  in  the  exultation  I  feel  in  the  successful  con- 
clusion of  a  high  adventure! 

A  calmer  and  more  deliberate  mental  review  of  that  long 
journey  brings  almost  as  much  regret  as  pleasure.  For 
I  find  that  to  tell  of  my  observations  on  the  trip,  in  a  book 
of  proper  length,  compels  me  to  omit  more  than  I  can  in- 
clude; and,  often,  things  of  great  interest. 

Particularly  painful  is  it  to  leave  out  a  statement  of  the 
accomplishments  of  my  associates  on  the  Expedition. 
At  the  beginning  I  was  merely  the  leader  of  a  whole  group, 
which  included  some  Danish  scientists  of  note.  During 
the  first  year,  we  worked  together  out  of  a  base  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Canada,  going  out  in  small  parties  to 
various  stations,  and  returning  from  time  to  time  to 
collate  our  material.  Our  work  had  mainly  to  do  with 
ethnography;  my  associates  were  concerned  also  with 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

archeology,  geology,  botany  and  cartography.  They  did 
notable  work  in  mapping  territory  known  before  only  in 
a  vague  way.  We  did  much  excavating  in  ruins  of  former 
Eskimo  cultures.  The  work  of  my  colleagues  in  this 
field,  especially,  contributed  much  to  knowledge  of  the 
past.  Full  reports  of  their  findings  have  been  published 
in  books,  monographs,  and  papers  under  their  own  names 
before  learned  societies.  This  allusion  here  must  stand 
as  the  chief  acknowledgment,  in  the  present  book,  of  their 
work.  They  enter  hereafter  only  in  passing. 

For,  here,  I  am  constrained  by  limitations  of  subject  to 
confine  myself  to  a  portion  of  the  material  I  gathered 
personally,  both  while  I  was  with  them,  and  later,  when  I 
set  out  on  my  visit  alone  to  all  the  tribes  of  Arctic  North 
America. 

It  was  my  privilege,  as  one  born  in  Greenland,  and 
speaking  the  Eskimo  language  as  my  native  tongue,  to 
know  these  people  in  an  intimate  way.  My  life's  course 
led  inevitably  toward  Arctic  exploration,  for  my  father, 
a  missionary  among  the  Eskimos,  married  one  who  was 
proud  of  some  portion  of  Eskimo  blood.  From  the  very 
nature  of  things,  I  was  endowed  with  attributes  for  Polar 
work  which  outlanders  have  to  acquire  through  painful 
experience.  My  playmates  were  native  Greenlanders; 
from  the  earliest  boyhood  I  played  and  worked  with  the 
hunters,  so  that  even  the  hardships  of  the  most  strenuous 
sledge-trips  became  pleasant  routine  for  me. 

I  was  eight  years  old  when  I  drove  my  own  team  of  dogs, 
and  at  ten  I  had  a  rifle  of  my  own.  No  wonder,  therefore, 
that  the  expeditions  of  later  years  were  like  happy  con- 
tinuations of  the  experiences  of  my  childhood  and  youth. 

Later,  when  I  became  aware  of  the  interest  which  the 
culture  and  history  of  the  Eskimo  hold  for  science,  I  was 
able  to  spend  eighteen  years  in  Greenland  again,  laying 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

down  the  foundation,  by  the  long  study  of  one  tribe,  for  a 
more  comprehensive  study  of  all  the  tribes. 

In  1902,  I  began  my  active  ethnographical  and  geo- 
graphical work  with  the  Eskimos,  which  has  continued 
pretty  steadily  since.  In  1910  I  established,  in 
collaboration  with  M.  Ib  Nyeboe,  a  station  for  trading 
and  for  study  in  North  Greenland,  and  to  it  I  gave  the 
name  of  "Thule,"  because  it  was  the  most  northerly  post 
in  the  world, — literally,  the  Ultima  Thule.  This  became 
the  base  of  my  subsequent  expeditions,  four  major  efforts 
in  ten  years,  and  all  called  "  Thule  Expeditions. " 

By  1920  I  had  completed  my  program  of  work  in 
Greenland,  and  the  time  had  come  to  attack  the  great 
primary  problem  of  the  origin  of  the  Eskimo  race.  The 
latter  enterprise  took  definite  shape  in  the  summer  of  1921, 
in  the  organization  of  an  expedition  which  went  from 
Greenland  all  the  way  to  the  Pacific.  At  the  beginning 
we  worked  from  a  headquarters  on  Danish  Island,  west  of 
Baffinland,  excavating  among  the  ruins  of  a  former 
Eskimo  civilization,  and  studying  the  primitive  inland 
Eskimo  of  what  are  known  as  the  Barren  Grounds. 

Later,  with  two  Eskimo  companions,  I  travelled  by  dog 
sledge  clear  across  the  continent  to  the  Bering  Sea.  I 
visited  all  the  tribes  on  the  way,  living  on  the  country,  and 
sharing  the  life  of  the  people.  What  I  observed  on  that 
trip  constitutes  my  story. 

The  Eskimo  is  the  hero  of  this  book.  His  history,  his 
present  culture,  his  daily  hardships,  and  his  spiritual  life 
constitute  the  theme  and  the  narrative.  Only  in  form  of 
telling,  and  as  a  means  of  binding  together  the  various 
incidents  is  it  even  a  record  of  my  long  trip  by  dog  sledge. 
Whatever  is  merely  personal  in  my  adventures  must  be  cut 
out,  along  with  the  record  of  the  scientific  achievements 
of  my  associates. 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

Even  the  Eskimo  will  suffer  some  omissions, — for  it  is 
obvious  that  only  a  portion  of  the  story  can  be  told,  when 
the  selection  has  to  be  made  from  thirty  note-books,  and 
20,000  items  of  illustrative  material. 

Yet  I  think  it  due  my  companions,  before  so  summarily 
disposing  of  them,  to  point  out  that  the  first  year  of  joint 
effort  with  them  helped  greatly  to  shape  my  own  work 
and  to  spur  me  to  enthusiasm  sufficient  to  carry  over  the 
long  pull  alone.  In  enumerating  the  rest  of  the  party,  I 
am  in  one  sense  naming  co-authors. 

With  me,  then,  were  Peter  Preuchen,  cartographer  and 
naturalist;  Therkel  Mathiassen,  archeologist  and  carto- 
grapher; Kaj  Birket-Smith,  ethnographer  and  geographer; 
Helge  Bangsted,  scientific  assistant;  Jacob  Olsen,  assistant 
and  interpreter;  and  Peder  Pedersen,  Captain  of  the 
Expedition's  motor  schooner,  Sea-King. 

The  official  title  of  the  Expedition  was:  'The  Fifth 
Thule  Expedition, — Danish  Ethnographical  Expedition 
to  Arctic  North  America,  1921-24." 

It  was  honored  by  the  patronage  of  King  Christian  X. 
of  Denmark,  and  advised  by  a  committee  consisting  of 
M.  Ib  Nyeboe,  chairman,  and  Chr.  Erichssen,  Col,  J.  P. 
Koch,  Professors  0.  B.  Boeggild,  Ad  Jensen,  C.  H.  Osten- 
feld,  of  Copenhagen  University,  and  Th.  Thomsen,  In- 
spector of  the  National  Museum  at  Copenhagen* 

Hardly  less  important  to  the  comfort  and  success  of  the 
Expedition  than  the  work  of  these  scientists  was  the 
contribution  of  our  Eskimo  assistants  from  Greenland, 
and  those  we  added  locally  from  time  to  time.  We 
brought  with  us  Iggianguaq  and  his  wife,  Anarulunguaq; 
Arqioq  and  his  wife  Anaranguaq;  Nasaitordluarsuk, 
hereinafter  known  as  "  Bosun, "  together  with  his  wife, 
Aqatsaq;  and  finally,  a  young  man,  known  as  Miteq,- 
cousin  of  Anarulunguaq. 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

Iggianguaq  died  of  influenza  after  we  were  far  from 
home,  and  his  wife  continued  with  me  to  the  end  of  the 
long  trip,  along  with  Miteq.  It  was  her  duty,  as  that  of 
the  other  women,  to  keep  the  fur  clothing  mended,  to 
cook,  and,  on  the  journey,  to  help  drive  the  dogs.  The 
men  drove,  hunted  food  for  men  and  dogs,  and  built  snow 
huts  wherever  we  set  up  new  camps. 

Anarulunguaq  is  the  first  Eskimo  woman  to  travel 
widely,  and  along  with  Miteq,  the  only  one  to  visit  all  the 
tribes  of  her  kinsmen.  She  has  received  a  medal  from  the 
King  of  Denmark  for  her  fine  work.  After  the  first  y ear,  I 
struck  out  with  one  team  of  dogs  and  these  two  Eskimos 
for  the  trip  across  to  Nome.  Considering  the  rigors  they 
endured,  I  don't  know  which  is  the  more  remarkable, 
that  I  came  through  the  three  and  a  half  years  with  the 
same  team  of  dogs,  or  with  the  same  Eskimos.  Surely, 
however,  it  is  no  mere  sentimental  gesture  to  point  out 
that  they  had  a  bigger  share  in  the  outcome  of  the  trip 
than  I  have  space  to  show. 

One  omission  likely  to  be  welcomed,  at  least  by  the 
reader,  is  the  almost  total  excision  of  theories  about  the 
origins  of  the  Eskimos.  This  being  one  of  the  chief 
assignments  of  our  research,  I  think  it  a  mark  of  strict 
literary  discipline  to  have  succeeded  in  keeping  it  so 
nearly  completely  out  of  the  story, — at  least  in  the 
manner  approved  by  scientists.  As  an  outlet  to  sup- 
pressed dogmatizing,  therefore,  I  am  going  to  make  a 
compact  little  statement,  at  this  point,  of  some  of  our 
conclusions,  and  hereaf ter  allow  the  facts  to  point  to  their 
own  conclusions. 

The  Eskimos  are  widely  scattered  from  Greenland  to 
Siberia,  along  the  Arctic  Circle,  about  one-third  of  the 
way  around  the  globe.  They  total  in  all  no  more  thatx 
33,000  souls,  which  represents,  perhaps,  the  outside 


x  INTRODUCTION 

number  of  persons  who  can  gain  their  Evelihood  by  hunt- 
ing in  a  country  so  forbidding.  They  have  a  wide  range 
in  following  the  seasonal  movement  of  game,  but  in  so  vast 
a  territory  the  different  tribes  are  scattered  and  isolated 
from  each  other.  Good  evidence  leads  us  to  believe 
that  a  period  of  at  least  1500  years  has  elapsed  since  the 
various  tribes  broke  off  from  one  original  stock. 

In  so  prolonged  a  separation,  it  would  be  natural  for 
the  language  and  traditions  of  the  various  tribes  to  have 
lost  all  homogeneity.  Yet  the  remarkable  thing  I  found 
was  that  my  Greenland  dialect  served  to  get  me  into 
complete  understanding  with  all  the  tribes.  Two  great 
divisions  appeared  in  the  customs, — a  land  culture  and  a 
coastal  culture.  The  most  primitive  Eskimos,  a  nomadic 
tribe  who  lived  in  the  interior  and  hunted  caribou,  had 
almost  no  knowledge  of  the  sea,  and  their  customs  and 
tabus  were  limited  accordingly.  Nothing  in  their  tradi- 
tions or  implements  indicated  that  they  had  ever  been 
acquainted  with  marine  pursuits.  But  the  folklore  of 
the  sea-people,  in  addition  to  being  unique  in  its  references 
to  ocean  life,  was  in  many  other  respects  identical  with 
that  of  the  tribes  that  had  never  been  down  to  sea.  The 
conclusion  was  inevitable  that  originally  all  the  Eskimos 
were  land  hunters,  and  that  a  portion  of  them  later  turned 
to  hunting  sea-mammals.  The  latter  people  retained  all 
their  old  vocabulary  and  myths,  and  added  thereto  a 
nomenclature  and  a  folklore  growing  out  of  their  experi- 
ence on  the  water. 

As  for  what  happened  before  that,  in  the  remote  past, 
the  theory  1  came  to  accept  was  that  long,  long  ago,  the 
Eskimos  and  the  Indians  were  of  common  root.  But 
different  conditions  developed  different  customs,  to  such 
a  degree  that  now  there  seems  to  be  no  resemblance 
between  the  Indians  and  the  Eskimos.  But  the  like- 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

nesses  are  there,  not  obvious  to  the  wayfarer,  but 
sufficiently  plain  to  the  microscopic  eye  of  the  scientist. 
The  aboriginal  Eskimos  developed  a  special  culture 
around  the  big  rivers  and  lakes  of  the  northernmost  part 
of  Canada.  From  here,  they  moved  down  to  the  coast, 
either  because  they  were  driven  by  hostile  tribes  or 
because  they  had  to  follow  the  caribou  in  their  migrations. 
They  developed  the  first  phases  of  a  coastal  culture  at  the 
Arctic  Coast  of  Canada,  most  probably  between  Coro- 
nation Gulf  and  the  Magnetic  North  Pole. 

From  here  they  wandered  over  to  Labrador,  Baffin- 
land,  and  Greenland,  to  the  east,  and  westward,  reached 
Alaska  and  the  Bering  Sea.  Around  the  Bering,  with 
its  abundance  of  sea-animals,  they  had  their  Golden  Age, 
as  a  coastal  people. 

From  here  a  new  migration  took  place,  for  what  reason 
we  cannot  know,  but  this  time  from  the  West  to  the  East, 
and  here  we  find  the  explanation  for  all  the  ruins  of 
permanent  winter  houses  we  discovered  along  the  Arctic 
Coast  between  Greenland  and  Alaska.  The  present 
Eskimos  do  not  construct  such  houses,  which  were  built  in 
rather  recent  times  by  people  known  as  the  Tunit  The 
Greenlanders,  however,  do,  and  they  are  undoubtedly 
the  original  Tunit. 

During  all  these  years  of  migration,  some  tribes  kept 
to  their  old  places  in  the  interior,  which  explains  why  we 
were  able  to  find  aboriginal  Eskimos  in  the  Barren 
Grounds.  These  facts,  together,  explain  why  the  spiritual 
culture  exhibited  a  certain  continuity  between  all  the 
tribes. 

The  foregoing  was  the  theory  advanced  by  Prof.  H,  P. 
Steensby,  of  the  University  of  Copenhagen,  and  all  of  our 
researches  lent  support  to  it. 

There  is  another  general  theory  with  regard  to  the 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

Eskimos  which  has  but  slight  relation  to  the  question  of 
American  origins,  for  it  goes  back  to  much  more  ancient 
times, — not  less  than  25,000  years  ago.  This  theory 
traces  the  Eskimo  back  to  a  time  when  our  own  ancestors 
of  the  Glacial  Period  lived  under  similar  arctic  conditions, 
and,  presumably,  resembled  the  Eskimo  of  today.  All 
remains  of  the  material  culture  of  the  Glacial,  or  Stone 
Age  are  exactly  comparable  with  that  of  the  Arctic 
dwellers,  and  the  theory  assumes  that  a  similar  spiritual 
resemblance  can  be  inferred.  This  grows  naturally  out  of 
the  discovery  that  the  Eskimos,  intimately  studied,  are 
much  more  spiritual-minded,  much  more  intelligent,  much 
more  likeable  than  the  average  man  has  been  led  to  expect. 
They  prove  to  be  human  beings  just  like  ourselves, — so 
like,  indeed,  that  we  cannot  avoid  drawing  them  into  the 
fold,  and  saying,  "These  people  belong  to  our  race!" 

For  they  do,  certainly,  react  to  the  suffering,  the 
sacrifices,  the  hardships  and  the  mysteries  of  evil  which 
they  face,  much  as  we  do.  Their  philosophy,  even  when 
untouched  by  any  influences  of  civilization,  has  many 
curiously  modern  slants,  including  such  ideas  as 
auto-suggestion,  spirit  seances,  and  cataleptcy.  Their 
poetry  has  many  resemblances  to  ours,  their  religion  and 
folklore  often  resemble,  even  in  phrasing,  as  well  as  in 
content,  our  earlier  religious  literature. 

Some  archeologists  have  made  bold  to  assert  that  the 
Eskimos  are  surviving  remnants  of  the  Stone  Age  we 
know,  and  are,  therefore,  our  contemporary  ancestors. 
We  don't  have  to  go  so  far  to  claim  kinship  with  them, 
however,  for  we  recognize  them  as  brothers. 
,  I  believe  that  the  following  pages  will  bear  out  this 
statement.  Even  so,  I  do  not  dare  to  feel  that  the  whole 
story  of  the  Eskimo,  or  his  whole  appeal  to  our  sympathies 
will  be  found  here. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

I  have  not  sounded  all  the  depths.    One  can  never 
finish  exploring  a  people. 


The  Expedition  started  from  Copenhagen  on  the 
of  June,  1921,  and  proceeded  via  Greenland,  in  order  to 
pick  up  additional  members  of  the  party,  and  arctic 
equipment.  The  vessel  employed  was  one  built  especially 
for  the  trip,  —  the  schooner  Sea-King,  of  something  over 
100  tons. 

Since  the  scientific  members  of  the  Expedition  would 
be  so  occupied  with  their  tasks  that  they  would  hardly 
have  time  for  hunting,  and  procuring  food  for  the  dogs, 
this  important  task  was  to  be  entrusted  to  the  Green- 
landers  from  Thule,  who  are  at  once  skilful  travellers 
and  notable  hunters. 

After  a  favorable  passage  across  the  dreaded  and  ice- 
filled  Melville  Bay,  we  arrived  at  Thule  on  the  3rd  of 
August,  and  engaged  our  native  assistants.  Leaving 
Greenland  through  Pox  Channel  in  mid-September, 
forcing  a  passage  through  heavy  ice  around  to  the  north 
of  Southampton  Island,  we  found  a  harbor  on  a  little, 
unknown  and  uninhabited  island.  A  whole  month 
was  spent  in  building  a  house  for  our  winter  quarters,  —  we 
called  it  the  "Blow-hole,"  by  reason  of  the  prevalent 
winds  —  and  in  sledge  trips  in  various  directions  with  a 
view  to  ascertaining  our  position.  Our  observations  gave 
this  as  65°  54'  N,  85°  50'  W,  but  the  old  maps  were  so 
inadequate  that  we  could  not  at  first  mark  the  locality  on 
any  existing  chart. 

The  place  was  afterward  called  Danish  Island.  Here 
in  a  smiling  valley  opening  seaward  upon  a  shelving 
beach,  and  landward,  sheltered  by  a  great  crescent  of 
guardian  hills,  we  erected  what  was  to  be  our  home  for 
months  to  come. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

Scarcely  were  we  ashore  when  we  found  fresh  bear 
tracks  in  the  sand  immediately  below  the  location  we  had 
chosen  for  our  home.  On  our  first  brief  reconnaissance  to 
the  top  of  a  neighboring  hill,  we  encountered  a  hare 
so  amazingly  tame  that  we  were  tempted  actually  to 
essay  his  capture  with  our  bare  hands.  Soon  afterward 
we  spied  a  lonely  caribou  who  at  once  was  all  curiosity 
and  came  running  toward  us  to  investigate  these  strange 
visitors.  The  confidence  of  the  game  showed  well  enough 
ho,w  little  disturbed  the  region  had  been.  Never  before 
had  I  encountered  from  animals  such  a  friendly  greeting. 

From  the  top  of  the  hills  we  had  a  fine  view  of  a  neigh- 
boring fjord,  and  out  in  the  open  water  were  seen  glistening 
dark  backs  of  walrus  curving  along  the  surface  as  they 
fed.  Such  was  our  first  impression  of  this  new  country, 
truly  a  land  hospitable  in  its  promise  of  game. 

By  October,  the  ground  was  covered  with  snow,  and  a 
narrow  channel  behind  the  house  frozen  over.  The  first 
thing  now  was  to  get  into  touch  with  the  nearest  natives 
as  soon  as  possible;  but  as  the  mouth  of  Gore  Bay  was 
open  water  we  were  unable  to  travel  far,  and  by  the  end 
of  October  all  we  had  found  was  a  few  old  cairns  and  rough 
stone  shelters  built  by  the  Eskimo  of  earlier  days  for  the 
purpose  of  caribou  hunting  with  bow  and  arrow*  The 
first  meeting  with  the  Eskimos  of  the  new  world  was 
yet  before  us. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION iii 

CHAPTER 

I. — OLD  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  SKINS    ...        3 

II. — TAKORNAOQ       ENTERTAINS       GENTLEMEN 

FRIENDS 12 

III. — A  WIZARD  AND  His  HOUSEHOLD        .         .       18 

IV. — FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION   ...      36 

V. — A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH         .         .      55 

VI. — NOMAD'S  LIFE  IN  THE  BARREN  GROUNDS  .       71 

VII. — WITH  No  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL     ...       87 

VIII. — BETWEEN  Two  WINTERS  ....     102 

IX. — FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR         .         .         .        .118 

X.— "I  HAVE  BEEN  So  HAPPY!"     .         .         .139 

XI. — SEPARATE  WAYS 154 

XII.— STEPPING  OUT 158 

XIII. — GOING  PRETTY  FAR  WITH  THE  SPIRITS      ,     176 
XIV. — AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE       ....     188 

XV. — TRULY  THANKFUL 201 

XVI. — FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY        .         .218 

XV 


xviii  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACINjG 
PAGE 


YOUNG  WOMEN        .......     100 

ICE  ON  THE  LAKES  .......    106 

REMAINS  OF  ESKIMO  DWELLINGS       .        .        .        .112 

MITEQ  CUTTING  UP  A  NEWLY  CAPTURED  SEAL  .  120 
SNOW  HUTS  ........  124 

A  PROMISING  YOUNG  HUNTER  ON  THE  LOOKOUT  FOR 
GAME         ........    130 

TERTAQ,  THE  "AMULET  BOY"  .....  136 
TYPICAL  WOMEN  OF  THE  TRIBE  .  .  .  .142 
THE  DANISH  MEMBERS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION  ,  .  154 

ANARULUNGUAQ,  THE  YOUNG  ESKIMO  WOMAN  FROM 
GREENLAND        .......     158 

A  FAMILY  PARTY  SETTING  OUT  FOR  REPULSE  BAY  .  160 
NATIVE  FROM  PELLY  BAY  .....  164 

ESKIMO  FROM  THE  MAGNETIC  POLE,  ARMED  WITH  Bow 
AND  ARROW        .......    174 

QUERTILIK,  NALINGIAQ'S  PRETTY  DAUGHTER,  WIFE  OF 
THE  CHIEF  QAQORTINGNEQ  .....     176 

THE  ARRIVAL  .        .        .        .        ,        .        .        .178 

NlAQUNGUAQ,  THE  WIZARD  .....  1  86 
NULIALIK,  THE  MOST  SKILFUL  REINDEER  HUNTER  ON 

THE  GREAT  PISH  RIVER      .....    192 
Two  LITTLE  GIRLS  FROM  LAKE  FRANKLIN        ,        .198 

"TAILS  UP!"    ........      200 


NETSILINGMIUT   CATCHES   FISH   AT   AMITSOQ,    KING 
WILLIAM'S  LAND         ......    206 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xk 


FACING 
PAGE 


THE  VICTIM     ......  .  318 

EQALUK  AND  HIS  Two  WI.VPS,  PAMIQQ  AND  AG^ATOG  233 

HONOR  TO  THE  DEAD       .        .        .        .   •     .        .  240 

Leo  HANSEN,  THE  FILM  PHOTOGRAPHER    ...        .  244 

ARCTIC  COD     ........  348 

SETTING  OUT  IN  SEARCP  OF  A  NATIVE;  VILLAGE        .  254 

THE  RETURN  OF  THE  SUN        .....  268 

THE  HUNTING  CAMP  NEAR  BERNARD  HARBOR      .        *  278 

OUR  HOST,  QANIGAG,  A  TYPICAL  SPECIMEN  OF  THE 

"BLOND"  ESKIMO  OF  THESE  REGIONS         .        .  282 

NEAR  PIERCE  POINT        ......  286 

THE  SMOKING  MOUNTAINS,  NORTH  OF  HORTON  RIVER  .  290 

ANGUISINAOQ,  MY  STQRY-TELLER  FROM  PAILLIE  ISLAND  292 
YQUNG  WOMAN  AND  CEILS  FROM  BAHXIE  I$L&m    • 


INSPECTOR  WOOD  OF  HSRSCBSL  IS^ANP,  CHJEF  Q 
ROYAL  CANADIAN  MOUNTED  POLICE  IN  THE  NORTH- 
WEST TERRITORY         ...... 

WOMAN  FROM  POINT  BARROW  .....    3°4 

POINT  BARROW,  THE  MOST  NORTHERLY  SETTLEMENT 
IN  AMERICA        .......    306 

THE  NALUKATAQ      .......  3H 

SAGPLUAQ,  FROM  COLVILLE  RIVER     ....  3l8 

WOMEN  FROM  POINT  BARROW  .....  322 

ANARULUNGUAQ  WITH  Two  OF  OUR  DOGS         .        .  328 

BATTLEFIELDS  OF  FORMER  DAYS       .  332 


xx  ILL  USTRA  TIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


NASUK,  FROM  KOTZEBUE  SOUND         ....  336 

VIEW  OF  THE  BEACH  AT  NOORVIK     ....  338 

KING  ISLAND,  A  SMALL  ISLAND  IN  THE  BERING  STRAITS  344 

IN  BERING  STRAITS  .......  352 

DANCING  AT  THE  NATIVE  FESTIVALS  IN  ALASKA        .  356 

EAST   CAPE,   SIBERIA,   THE  WESTERN   BOUNDARY  OF 

ESKIMO  OCCUPATION 360 

REPRESENTATIVE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  SOVIET  FROM  EMMA- 
TOWN           364 

THE  "TEDDY  BEAR" 378 

MAPS 

MAP:   REGION   NORTH  OF   HUDSON   BAY.     SHOWING 
HEADQUARTERS  AT  DANISH  ISLAND       .         .         .10 

MAP:  BAFFIN  ISLAND  TO  MACKENZIE  BAY         .         .  224 

MAP:  MACKENZIE  BAY  TO  EAST  CAPE      .         .         .  310 

ROUTES  OF  THE  FIFTH  THULE  EXPEDITION,  1921-24  382 


ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 


ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 

OLD  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  SKINS 

I  HAD  halted  to  thaw  my  frozen  cheeks  when  a 
sottnd  and  a  sudden  movement  among  the  dogs 
made  me  start. 

There  could  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  sound, — it 
was  a  shot.  I  glanced  round  along  the  way  we  had 
come,  fancying  for  a  moment  that  it  might  be  the 
party  behind  signalling  for  assistance;  but  I  saw 
them  coming  along  in  fine  style.  Then  I  turned  to 
look  ahead. 

I  had  often  imagined  the  first  meeting  with  the 
Eskimos  of  the  American  Continent,  and  wondered 
what  it  would  be  like.  With  a  calmness  that  sur- 
prised myself,  I  realized  that  it  had  come. 

Three  or  four  miles  ahead  a  line  of  black  objects 
stood  out  against  the  ice  of  the  fjord.  I  got  out 
my  glass;  it  might,  after  all,  be  only  a  reef  of  rock. 
But  the  glass  showed  plainly:  a  whole  line  of  sledges 
with  their  teams,  halted  to  watch  the  traveller  ap- 
proaching from  the  South.  One  man  detached  him- 
self from  the  party  and  came  running  across  the  ice 

3 


4  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

in  a  direction  that  would  bring  him  athwart  my 
course.  Evidently,  they  intended  to  stop  me, 
whether  I  would  or  no.  From  time  to  time,  a  shot 
was  fired  by  the  party  with  the  sledges. 

Whether  the  shots  fired  and  the  messenger  hurry- 
ing toward  me  with  his  harpoon  were  evidence  or 
not  of  hostile  intent,  I  did  not  stop  to  think.  These 
were  the  men  I  had  come  so  far  to  seek  from  Den- 
mark and  from  my  familiar  haunts  in  Greenland. 
Without  waiting  for  my  companions  to  come  up, 
I  sprang  to  the  sledge,  and  urged  on  the  dogs,  point- 
ing out  the  runner  as  one  would  a  quarry  in  the  chase. 
The  beasts  made  straight  for  him,  tearing  along  at 
top  speed.  When  we  came  up  with  him,  their  ex- 
citement increased;  his  clothes  were  of  unfamiliar 
cut,  the  very  smell  of  him  was  strange  to  them;  and 
his  antics  in  endeavoring  to  avoid  their  twelve  gaping 
maws  only  made  them  worse. 

"Stand  still!"  I  cried;  and,  taking  a  flying  leap 
out  among  the  dogs,  embraced  the  stranger  after 
the  Eskimo  fashion.  At  this  evidence  of  friendship 
the  animals  were  quiet  in  a  moment,  and  sneaked 
off  shamefacedly  behind  the  sledge. 

I  had  yelled  at  the  dogs  in  the  language  of  the 
Greenland  Eskimo.  And,  from  the  expression  of  the 
stranger's  face,  in  a  flash  I  realized  that  he  had 
understood  what  I  said. 

He  was  a  tall,  well-built  fellow,  with  face  and  hair 
covered  with  rime,  and  large,  gleaming  white  teeth 
showing,  as  he  stood  smiling  and  gasping,  still  breath- 
less with  exertion  and  excitement.  It  had  all  come 
about  in  a  moment, — and  here  we  were! 


THE  FIRST  MAN  TO  GREET  US  IN  THESE  NEW  LANDS 
His  face  and  hair  were  thick  with  icicles. 


OLD  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  SKINS          5 

As  soon  as  my  comrades  behind  had  come  within 
hail,  we  moved  on  toward  the  party  ahead,  who 
had  been  watching  us  all  the  time.  Our  new  friend 
informed  me  that  his  name  was  Papik  and  that  he 
had  come  from  the  neighborhood  of  Lyon  Inlet, — 
the  next  large  inlet  to  the  North  of  our  recently 
established  headquarters  camp  on  Danish  Island. 
There  was  not  time  for  much  talk,  before  we  came 
up  with  the  others;  and  I  was  anxious  this  time  to 
check  the  dogs  before  they  became  too  excited.  As 
we  approached,  the  men  caine  out  to  meet  us,  the 
women  and  children  remaining  with  the  sledges. 

These  men,  then,  were  the  Akilinenmtrt, — the 
"men  from  behind  the  Great  Sea/'  of  whom  I  had 
heard  in  my  earliest  youth  in  Greenland,  when  I 
first  began  to  study  the  Eskimo  legends.  The  meet- 
ing could  hardly  be  more  effectively  staged;  a  whole 
caravan  of  them  suddenly  appearing  out  of  the  desert 
of  ice,  men,  women  and  children,  dressed  up  in  their 
fantastic  costumes,  like  living  illustrations  of  the 
Greenland  stories  of  the  famous  "inland-dwellers." 
They  were  dad  throughout  in  caribou  skin;  the  fine 
short  haired  animals  shot  in  the  early  autumn.  The 
women  wore  great  fur  hoods  and  long,  flapping ' l  coat- 
tails"  falling  down  over  the  breeches  back  and 
front.  The  curious  dress  of  the  men  was  as  if  de- 
signed especially  for  running;  cut  short  in  front,  but 
with  a  long  tail  out  behind.  All  was  so  unlike  the 
fashions  I  had  previously  met  with  that  I  felt  myself 
transported  to  another  age;  an  age  of  legends  of  the 
past,  yet  with  abundant  promise  for  the  future,  so 
far  as  my  own  task  of  comparing  the  various  tribes 


6  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

of  Eskimos  was  concerned.  I  was  delighted  to  find 
that  the  difference  in  language  was  so  slight  that 
we  had  not  the  least  difficulty  in  understanding  one 
another.  Indeed,  they  took  us  at  first  for  tribes- 
men of  kindred  race  from  somewhere  up  in  Baffin 
Island. 

So  far  as  I  thought  they  would  understand,  I 
explained  our  purposes  to  my  new  friends.  The 
white  men,  Peter  Freuchen  and  myself,  were  part 
of  a  larger  party  who  had  come  out  of  the  white 
man's  country  to  study  all  the  tribes  of  the  Eskimo, 
— how  they  lived ,  what  language  they  talked,  how 
they  hunted,  how  they  amused  themselves,  what 
things  they  feared,  and  believed  about  the  future 
life — every  manner  of  thing.  We  were  going  to  buy 
and  carry  back  to  our  own  country  souvenirs  of  the 
daily  life  of  the  Eskimo,  in  order  that  the  white  man 
might  better  understand,  from  these  objects,  the 
different  way  the  people  of  the  northern  ice  country 
had  to  live.  And  we  were  going  to  make  maps  and 
pictures  of  parts  of  this  country  in  which  no  white 
man  had  ever  been. 

I  introduced,  then,  my  Eskimo  companion  (Bosun) , 
— a  man  from  Greenland  who  was  almost  as  strange 
to  the  Akilinermiut  as  I,  He  had  come  along  to 
hunt  and  to  drive  sledges,  and  do  other  work  for 
the  white  man,  while  we  gave  our  time  to  these 
studies. 

My  new  friends  were  greatly  pleased  and  im- 
pressed. They  had  just  set  out  for  their  autumn 
camp  up  country  at  the  back  of  Lyon  Inlet,  taking 
with  them  all  their  worldly  goods.  Being,  however, 


OLD  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  SKINS  7 

like  Eskimos  generally,  creatures  of  the  moment, 
they  at  once  abandoned  the  journey  on  meeting  us, 
and  we  decided  to  set  off  all  together  for  some  big 
snowdrifts  close  at  hand,  where  we  could  build  snow 
huts  and  celebrate  the  meeting. 

Accustomed  as  we  were  ourselves  to  making  snow 
huts,  we  were  astonished  at  the  ease  and  rapidity 
with  which  these  natives  worked.  The  Cape  York 
Eskimos,  in  Greenland,  reckon  two  men  to  the  task 
of  erecting  a  hut ;  one  cutting  the  blocks  and  handing 
them  to  the  other,  who  builds  them  up.  Here, 
however,  it  was  a  one-man  job;  the  builder  starts 
with  a  few  cuts  in  the  drift  where  he  proposes  to 
site  his  house,  and  then  proceeds  to  slice  out  the 
blocks  and  lay  them  in  place,  all  with  a  speed  that 
left  us  staring  open-mouthed.  Meantime  one  of 
the  women  brought  out  a  remarkable  type  of  snow- 
shovel,  with  an  extra  handle  on  the  blade,  or  business 
end,  and  strewed  a  layer  of  fine  snow  over  the  waH 
as  it  rose,  thus  caulking  any  chinks  or  crevices,  and 
making  all  thoroughly  weather-proof.  Two  technical 
points  which  particularly  impressed  our  Cape  York 
man,  as  an  expert,  were  firstly  the  way  these  men 
managed  to  build  with  loose  snow — some  degree  of 
firmness  being  generally  considered  essential — and 
further,  the  very  slight  arch  of  the  roof,  which  has 
ordinarily  to  be  domed  pretty  roundly  for  the  blocks 
to  hold,  whereas  here,  it  was  almost  flat*  In  less 
than  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  three  large  huts 
were  ready  for  occupation;  then,  while  the  finishing 
touches  were  given  to  the  interior,  the  blubber  lamps 
were  lighted  and  the  whole  made  warm  and  cosy. 


8  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

I  and  my  two  companions  distributed  ourselves 
among  the  three  huts,  so  as  to  make  the  most  of  our 
new  acquaintances.  Caribou  meat  was  put  on  to 
boil;  but  we  found  also,  that  our  hosts  had  both  tea 
and  flour  among  their  stores,  which  they  had  pur- 
chased from  a  white  man  down  at  Repulse  Bay,  not 
far  from  the  camp.  This  was  news  of  importance 
to  us,  for  it  meant  we  might  have  a  chance  of  sending 
letters  home  in  the  spring. 

In  the  course  of  the  meal,  I  obtained  some  valuable 
information  as  to  the  neighborhood  and  neighbors. 
There  were  native  villages,  it  appeared,  in  almost 
every  direction  round  about  our  headquarters.  They 
were  not  numerous,  but  the  more  interesting  in  their 
varied  composition.  There  were  the  Igdlulik  from 
Fury  and  Hecla  Strait,  the  Aivilik  between  Repulse 
Bay  and  Lyon  Inlet,  and  a  party  of  Netsilik  from 
the  region  of  the  North-west  Passage.  Only  half 
a  day's  journey  from  the  camp  there  was  a  family 
from  Ponds  Inlet,  on  the  north  coast  of  Baffin  Land. 

Conversation  was  for  the  most  part  general,  as 
it  mostly  is  on  first  acquaintance.  Speaking  the 
same  tongue,  however,  we  were  not  regarded  .alto- 
gether as  strangers,  and  I  was  able  even  to  touch  on 
questions  of  religion.  And  I  soon  learned  that  these 
people,  despite  their  tea  and  flour  and  incipient 
enamel-ware  culture,  were,  as  regards  their  view  of 
life  and  habit  of  thought,  still  but  little  changed 
from  their  ancestors  of  ages  past. 

Plainly,  here  was  work  for  us  in  plenty,  and  an 
interesting  task  it  promised  to  be.  We  had,  more- 
over, been  well  received,  and  I  anticipated  little 


OLD  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  SKINS          9 

difficulty  in  gathering  information.  First  of  all,  how- 
ever, we  must  go  on  to  seek  the  nearest  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  station,  and  find  out  whether  there 
really  would  be  any  opportunity  of  postal  communi- 
cation in  the  spring. 

We  started  accordingly,  on  the  following  morning. 
On  the  5th  of  December,  while  it  was  still  daylight, 
we  reached  the  spot  where,  according  to  the  Eskimo 
accounts,  the  white  man  had  his  quarters.  At  the 
base  of  a  little  creek,  behind  huge  piles  of  twisted 
and  tumbled  ice,  stood  a  modest  looking  building, 
dark  against  the  colony  of  snow  huts  which  sur- 
rounded it.  This,  we  found,  was  the  extreme  ad- 
vanced post  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  of 
Adventurers,  one  of  the  oldest  and  greatest  trading 
companies  in  the  world. 

We  had  hardly  drawn  up  in  front  of  the  house 
before  the  station  manager,  Captain  Cleveland,  came 
out  and  greeted  us  with  the  most  cordial  welcome. 
He  proved,  also,  to  be  a  remarkably  quick  and 
efficient  cook,  and  had  a  meal  ready  for  us  in  no 
time;  a  steaming  dish  of  juicy  caribou  steaks  and  a 
Californian  bouquet  of  canned  fruit  in  all  varieties. 

George  Washington  Cleveland  was  an  old  whaler 
who  had  been  stranded  on  the  coast  here  over  a 
generation  before,  and  made  himself  so  comfortable 
among  the  Eskimos  that  he  had  never  been  able  to 
tear  himself  away.  Nevertheless,  he  was  more  of 
an  American  than  one  would  expect  from  his  isolated 
life,  and  was  proud  of  having  been  born  on  the  very 
shore  where  the  Mayflower  had  first  landed,  He 
had  been  through  all  manner  of  adventures,  but 


ID  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

neither  shipwreck  nor  starvation,  not  to  speak  of 
the  other  forms  of  adversity  that  had  fallen  to  his 
lot,  could  sour  his  cheery  temper  or  impair  his  steady, 
seaman-like  assurance  of  manner. 

We  knew  really  very  little  about  this  arctic  region 
of  Canada,  and  Captain  Cleveland's  information  was 
most  valuable  to  us  later  on.  We  learned  now  that 
one  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  schooners,  com- 
manded by  a  French  Canadian,  Captain  Jean  Ber- 
thie,  was  wintering  at  Wager  Bay,  five  days'  journey 
farther  to  the  south*  There  was  a  chance  that  we 
might  be  able  to  send  letters  home  in  the  course  of 
the  winter  by  this  route,  and  it  was  at  once  decided 
that  Freuchen  should  set  out  for  the  spot  and  bring 
bade  news. 

Tfcere  was  a  dance  that  evening,  to  celebrate  the 
visitors'  arrival.  The  Eskimo  men  and  women  had 
learned,  from  the  whalers,  American  country  dances. 
Music  was  provided  by  the  inevitable  gramophone 
which  seems  to  follow  on  the  heels  of  the  white  man 
to  most  parts  of  the  world.  And  the  women  were 
decked  out  in  ball  dresses  hastily  contrived  for  the 
occasion  from  material  supplied  by  Captain  Cleve- 
land. 

Later  on,  we  made  a  round  of  the  huts,  which  were 
refreshingly  cool  after  the  heat  of  the  ballroom.  We 
were  anxious  to  get  more  information  as  to  the 
country  round,  but  being  unacquainted  with  the 
Eskimo  names  of  places  near,  we  could  only  go  by 
the  old  English  maps,  and  were  rather  at  a  deadlock 
when  aid  arrived  frona  an  unexpected  quarter.  An 
old  fellow  With  a  long  wMte  beard,  and  eyes  red- 


OLD  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  SKINS         11 

dened  with  the  strain  of  many  a  blizzard,  revealed 
himself  as  a  geographical  expert. 

We  brought  out  paper  and  pencil,  and  to  my  as- 
tonishment, this  "savage"  drew,  without  hesitation, 
a  map  of  the  coastline  for  a  distance  of  some  hundreds 
of  miles,  from  Repulse  Bay  right  up  to  Baffin  Land. 
The  map  completed,  he  told  me  all  the  Eskimo  place 
names,  and  at  last  we  are  able  to  get  a  real  idea  as 
to  the  population  of  the  district  and  the  position  of 
the  settlements.  I  was  elated  here  to  note  that  the 
majority  of  these  names;  Naujarmiut,  Pitorqermiut, 
Nagssugtormiut  and  many  others,  were  identical 
with  some  of  the  familiar  place  names  from  that  part 
of  Greenland  where  I  was  born.  And  when  I  began 
telling  of  the  Greenland  folk  tales  to  the  company 
here,  it  turned  out  that  they  knew  them  already; 
and  were,  moreover,  themselves  astonished  to  find 
that  a  stranger  should  be  acquainted  with  what  they 
regarded  as  their  own  particular  legends. 

I  was  looking  forward  to  closer  acquaintance  with 
these  people  and  their  history  and  traditions;  Ival- 
uartjuk,  who  had  drawn  the  map,  wottH,  I  foresaw, 
be  particularly  useful  as  a  source  of  MoimatkHi. 
But  we  could  not  now  remain  longer  than  the  one 
whole  day,  and  on  the  7th  of  December,  we  took 
leave  of  our  new  friends,  Freuchen  going  down  as 
arranged  to  meet  Captain  Berthie  at  Wager  Bay, 
while  Bosun  and  I  drove  back  to  our  winter  quarters. 
After  passing  Haviland  Bay,  however,  we  came  upon 
some  old  sledge  tracks,  and  decided  to  follow  and 
see  whither  they  led* 


CHAPTER  II 

TAKORNAOQ  ENTERTAINS  GENTLEMEN  FRIENDS 

IN  the  middle  of  a  big  lake  an  old  Eskimo  woman 
*  stood  fishing  for  trout.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  winter  was  yet  young  the  ice  had  already  become 
so  thick  that  all  her  strength  must  have  been  needed 
in  cutting  the  hole  for  her  line.  Now  and  then  she 
took  a  piece  of  drift-wood  shaped  like  a  shovel  and 
pushed  away  the  fragments  of  ice  that  were  in  her 
way.  Then  stretching  out  on  her  stomach  she  thrust 
half  her  body  so  far  into  the  hole  that  all  that  re- 
mained visible  was  a  pair  of  bent,  skin-covered  legs 
waving  in  the  air. 

Suddenly  a  puppy  that  had  lain  buried  in  the  snow 
scrambled  to  his  feet  and  started  to  bark  wildly. 
Tumbling  out  of  the  hole,  the  old  woman  crouched, 
bewildered  &t  peeing  Bostua  and  myself  so  near  her. 
At  f^ft;spp<|  o$tr  4©g§  dashed  down  on  the  odd  pair. 

*?fae  seized  the  pup  by  the 
mi&  a&d  set  out  in  the  direction  of  the 
.fist  as  later  ancient  legs  would  carry  her. 
B  of  her  flight  only  served  to  increase  the, 
c£  ouar  dogs,  already  excited  by  the  scent 
of  tite  ¥lfi3ge,  aad  such  was  their  speed  that,  in  pass- 
ffif  the  fugitive,  I  had  barely  time  to  seke  her  and 
tog  her  on  top  of  the  flying  sledge.  There  she  lay 


12 


TAKORNAOQ  ENTERTAINS  FRIENDS  13 

with  horror  in  her  eyes,  while  I  burst  out  laughing 
at  the  absurdity  of  the  scene*  At  length,  through 
her  tears  of  fright,  she  started  to  smile,  too,  realizing 
that  I  was  a  human,  and  a  friendly  human  being, 
at  that. 

It  was  old  Takomaoq.  She  now  sat  with  arms 
convulsively  clutching  the  whimpering  pup.  Then 
above  the  noise  of  the  frightened  dog  I  suddenly 
heard  a  sound  that  startled  me  in  turn.  Bending 
over  her  and  cautiously  lifting  her  skin  kolitah  I 
discovered  far  down  inside  her  peltry  clothing  a 
small  infant  clinging  to  her  naked  back  and  whimper- 
ing in  unison  with  the  mother  and  the  terrified  puppy. 

Such  was  my  meeting  with  Takornaoq.  Soon  we 
were  friends.  We  raced  merrily  along  to  her  village, 
which  consisted  of  three  snow  huts.  Here  we  were 
introduced  to  the  notables  of  the  place. 

Inernerunassuaq  was  an  old  angakoq,  or  wizard, 
from  the  neighborhood  of  the  Magnetic  Pole.  He 
screwed  up  his  eyes  to  a  couple  of  slits  cm  being  in- 
troduced, and  was  careful  to  draw  my  attention  to 
his  magic  belt,  which  was  httng  about  with  zoological 
preparations.  His  wife  was  a  simple  soul,  fat  and 
comfortable,  as  befits  one  married  to  a  specialist  in 
the  secret  arts.  They  had  a  large  family  of  small 
children  who  hung  about  getting  in  the  way;  none 
of  them  had  reached  the  age  when  a  child  is  reckoned 
worthy  of  a  name,  and  their  parents  simply  pointed 
at  this  one  or  that  when  telling  them  to  be  quiet. 

Thai  there  was  Talerortalik,  son-in-law  to  the 
foregoing,  having  married  Uvtukitsoq,,  the  wizard's 
daughter.  They  looked  an  insignificant  pair;  but 


I4  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

we  found  out  afterwards  that  it  was  they  who  made 
ends  meet  for  the  wizard  and  his  flock.  Finally, 
there  was  Peqingassoq,  the  cripple,  who  was  said  to 
be  specially  clever  at  catching  trout.  Others  were 
briefly  introduced,  and  Takornaoq  carried  me  off  to 
her  own  hut.  It  was  clean  and  decent  as  such 
places  go,  but  chilly,  until  we  got  the  blubber  lamp 
well  alight. 

Bosun  and  I  settled  down  comfortably  on  the  sleep- 
ing place  among  the  cosy  caribou  skins.  And  as 
soon  as  the  meat  was  put  on  to  boil,  Takoraaoq  sat 
down  between  us  with  the  unexpected  observation 
that  she  was  "married  to  both  of  us  now,"  her  hus- 
band, whom  she  loved,  being  away  on  a  journey. 
Then  taking  a  tiny  infant  from  her  aniaut,  she  laid 
it  proudly  in  a  hareskin  bag.  The  child  was  named 
Qasitsoq,  after  a  mountain  spirit,  the  mother  ex- 
plained. It  was  not  her  own  child,  but  one  of  twins 
born  to  a  certain  Nagsuk;  she  had  bought  it  for  a 
dog  and  a  frying  pan.  It  was  too  much  really,  for 
such  a  pitiful  little  creature,  nothing  but  skin  and 
bone;  Takornaoq  complained  bitterly  that  Nagsuk 
had  cheated,  and  given  her  the  poorer  of  the  two. 

Our  hostess  told  us  a  great  deal  about  herself  and 
her  family.  She  was  of  the  Igdlulik,  from  Fury  and 
Hecla  Strait,  a  tribe  noted  for  clever  hunters  and 
good  women;  and  she  was  proud  of  her  origin,  as 
being  superior  to  that  of  her  fellow-villagers  here. 
Our  visit  was  most  welcome,  she  assured  us,  and  even 
went  to  the  length  of  voicing  her  appreciation  in  an 
improvised  song,  which  she  delivered  sitting  between 
us  on  the  bench.  Her  voice,  it  is  true,  was  somewhat 


TAKORNAOQ  ENTERTAINS  FRIENDS   15 

over-mellowed  by  her  sixty  odd  winters,  but  its 
quavering  earnestness  fitted  the  kindly,  frank,  sim- 
plicity of  the  words: 

Aya  iya,  aya  ya-iya, 

The  lands  about  my  dwelling 

Are  grown  fairer  this  day 

Since  it  was  given  me  to  see 

The  face  of  strangers  never  seen. 

All  is  fairer, 

All  is  fairer, 

And  life  is  thankfulness  itself* 

Aya,  these  guests  of  mine 
Bring  greatness  to  my  house, 
Aya  iya,  aya  ya-iya. 

Immediately  after  the  song,  dinner  was  served. 
Our  hostess,  however,  did  not  join  us  at  the  meal; 
a  sacrifice  enjoined  by  consideration  for  the  welfare 
of  the  child.  Among  her  tribe,  it  appeared,  women 
with  infant  children  were  not  allowed  to  share  cook- 
ing utensils  with  others,  but  had  their  own,  which 
were  kept  strictly  apart. 

Not  content  with  feeding  us,  however,  she  then 
opened  a  small  storehouse  at  the  side  of  the  hut, 
and  dragged  forth  the  whole  carcase  of  a  caribou. 
This,  the  good  old  soul  explained,  was  for  our  dogs. 
And  with  rare  tact,  she  tried  to  make  the  gift  appear 
as  a  matter  of  course.  "  It  is  only  what  my  husband 
would  do  if  he  were  at  home.  Take  it,  and  feed 
them."  And  she  smiled  at  us  with  her  honest  old 
eyes  as  if  really  glad  to  be  of  use. 


16  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Bosun  and  I  agreed  that  it  was  the  first  time  in 
our  lives  a  woman  had  given  us  food  for  our  dogs. 

We  enquired  politely  after  her  husband,  Patdloq, 
and  learned  that  she  had  been  married  several  times 
before.  One  of  her  former  husbands,  a  certain  Quiv- 
apik,  was  a  wizard  of  great  reputation,  and  a  notable 
fighter*  On  one  occasion,  at  Southampton  Island, 
he  was  struck  by  a  harpoon  in  the  eye,  while  another 
pierced  his  thigh,  ''But  he  was  so  great  a  wizard 
that  he  did  not  die  of  it  after  all."  He  was  an  expert 
at  finding  lost  property,  and  had  a  recipe  of  his  own 
for  catching  fish. 

"Once  we  were  out  fishing  for  salmon,  but  I  caught 
nothing.  Then  came  Quivapik  and  taking  the  Kne 
from  me,  swallowed  it  himself,  hook  and  all,  and 
pulled  it  out  through  his  navel.  After  that  I  caught 


Another  of  Takornaoq's  adventures  shows  some- 
thing of  the  dreadful  reality  of  life  in  these  regions. 

"I  c»ce  met  a  woman  who  saved  her  own  life  by 
eating  her  husband  and  her  children. 

"My  husband  and  I  were  on  a  journey  from 
Igdiulik  to  Ponds  Inlet.  On  the  way  he  had  a  dream  ; 
in  which  it  seemed  that  a  friend  of  his  was  being 
eaten  by  his  own  kin.  Two  days  after,  we  came  to 
a  spot  where  strange  sottnds  hovered  in  the  air.  At 
first  w^ocmld  not  make  out  what  it  was,  but  coming 
nearer  it  was  like  the  ghost  of  words;  as  it  were  one 
trying  to  speak  without  a  voice.  And  at  last  it  said  : 

"'I  am  one  who  can  no  longer  live  among  human- 
kvm,  for  I  have  eaten  my  own  kin.9 

41  We  could  hear  now  that  it  was  a  woman.  And 
we  looked  at  each  other,  and  spoke  in  a  whisper 


WOMAN'S  DRESS,  FRONT  VIEW 

The  sleeves  are  made  so  loose  in  the  shoulder  that  when  travelling  in  a  blizzard  the  arms 
can  be  drawn  up  out  of  the  sleeves  altogether,  and  crossed  on  the  breast  inside  to  warm 
them.  The  band  across  the  forehead,  a  woman's  principal  ornament,  is  here  made  from  a 
piece  of  brass  that  had  formed  part  of  a  telescope.  The  woman  here  shown,  Ataguvtaluk, 
is  one  of  the  survivors  of  a  f  axnine,  when  she  lived  on  the  bodies  of  her  husband  and  children'. 
Blue  veins  show  up  prominently  round  her  mouth,  said  to  be  due  to  her  having  eaten  her 
own  flesh  and  blood. 


TAKORNAOQ  ENTERTAINS  FRIENDS   17 

fearing  what  might  happen  to  us  now.  Then  search- 
ing round,  we  found  a  little  shelter  built  of  snow 
and  a  fragment  of  caribou  skin.  Close  by  was  a 
thing  standing  up ;  we  thought  at  first  it  was  a  human 
being,  but  saw  it  was  only  a  rifle  stuck  in  the  snow. 
But  all  this  time  the  voice  was  muttering.  And  go- 
ing nearer  again  we  found  a  human  head,  with  the 
flesh  gnawed  away.  And  at  last,  entering  into  the 
shelter,  we  found  the  woman  seated  on  the  floor. 
Her  face  was  turned  towards  us  and  we  saw  that 
blood  was  trickling  from  the  corners  of  her  eyes;  so 
greatly  had  she  wept. 

"'Kikaq'  (a  gnawed  bone)  she  said,  'I  have  eaten 
my  husband  and  my  children! ' 

"She  was  but  skin  and  bone  herself,  and  seemed 
to  have  no  life  in  her.  And  she  was  almost  naked, 
having  eaten  most  of  her  clothing.  My  husband 
bent  down  over  her,  and  she  said: 

"'I  have  eaten  him  who  was  your  comrade  when 
he  lived/ 

"And  my  httsband  answered:  *  You  had  the  will 
to  live,  and  so  you  are  still  alive/ 

"Then  we  put  tap  our  tent  close  by,  cutting  c€ 
a  piece  of  the  fore-curtain  to  maJbg  a  shelter  for  the 
wo3daa;  for  she  was  ttndeaa,  aaad  might  not  fee  in 
the  same  tent  with  us.  And  we  gave  her  frozen 
caribou  meat  to  eat,  but  when  she  had  eaten  a  mouth- 
ful or  so,  she  fell  to  trembling  all  over,  and  could  eat 
no  more. 

"We  ceased  from  our  journey  then,  and  turned 
back  to  Igdlulik,  taking  her  with  us,  for  she  had  a 
brother  there.  She  is  still  alive  to  this  day  and  mar- 
tied  to  a  great  hunter,  named  Igtussarssua,  and  she 
is  his  favorite  wife,  though  he  had  one  before. 

"  But  that  is  the  most  terrible  thing  I  have  known 
in  all  my  life/' 


CHAPTER  III 

A   WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD 

T  RETURNED  to  headquarters  on  Danish  Island 
1  full  of  excitement  over  the  promise  of  my  first 
reconnoitring  expedition.  Contact  with  these  shore 
tribes  convinced  me  that  farther  back,  in  the  "Bar- 
ren Grounds"  of  the  American  Continent  I  should 
find  people  still  more  interesting,  and  that  our  ex- 
pedition would  be  able  not  only  to  bear  to  the  world 
the  first  intimate  picture  of  the  life  of  a  little  known 
people,  but  also  to  produce  evidence  of  the  origin 
and  migrations  of  all  the  Eskimo  Tribes. 

The  key  to  these  mysteries  would  be  found  in 
hitherto  unexplored  ruins  of  former  civilizations  on 
the  shores  adjacent  to  the  Barren  Grounds,  and  in 
the  present-day  customs  of  isolated  aborigines  who 
were  themselves  strangers  alike  to  the  white  man 
and  to  the  Greenland  Eskimos  I  knew  so  well. 

The  "Barren  Grounds,"  as  they  have  long  been 
cailed,  are  great  tracts  of  bare,  untimbered  land 
between  Hudson  Bay  and  the  Arctic  Coast.  Though 
f  coming  part  of  the  great  continent  of  America,  they 
are  among  the  most  isolated  and  inaccessible  portions 
of  ^  the  globe.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  most 
primitive  and  uncivilized  tribes  are  still  to  be  found 
there.  Despite  the  zeal  with  which  hunters  and 

18 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      19 

traders  ever  seek  to  penetrate  into  unknown  regions, 
the  natural  obstacles  here  have  hitherto  proved  an 
effective  barrier,  and  the  territory  is  known  only 
in  the  barest  outline.  On  the  north,  there  are  the 
ramifications  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  permanently  filled 
with  ice,  to  bar  the  way.  On  the  south,  and  to  some 
extent  also  on  the  west,  lie  great  trackless  forests, 
where  travelling  is  slow  and  difficult,  the  only  prac- 
ticable route  being  along  the  little  known  rivers. 
Only  from  Hudson  Bay  has  the  east  coast  of  the 
Barren  Grounds  been  accessible  for  modern  forms  of 
transport.  And  even  here  the  waters  are  so  hampered 
with  ice  that  they  are  reckoned  to  be  navigable  for 
only  two  or  three  months  a  year.  These  natural 
obstacles,  however,  which  have  kept  others  away, 
were  all  to  our  advantage,  because  they  have  kept 
the  tribes  of  Eskimos  I  intended  to  visit  uncontam- 
inated  by  white  civilization,  imprisoned  within  their 
swampy  tundras,  unaltered  in  all  their  primitive 
character. 

We  were  now  able  to  plan  <mr  first  year's  work  in 
these  regions.  Near  our  headquarters  we  found  a 
few  old  cairns  and  rough  stone  shelters  built  by  the 
Eskimos  of  earlier  days  for  the  purpose  of  hunting 
caribou  with  bow  and  arrow.  We  were  convinced 
that  the  excavation  of  these  ruins  would  be  well 
worth  while.  The  natives  we  had  now  met  explained 
that  these  ruins  originated  with  a  mysterious  race 
of  "giants,"  called  Tunit. 

We  divided  up  our  work  as  follows;  Mathiassen, 
with  Kaj  Birket-Smith  was  first  to  visit  Captain 
Cleveland,  to  acquire  preliminary  information,  and 


20  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

then  Birket-Smith  would  travel  on  south,  to  investi- 
gate the  problem  of  the  early  relations  between  the 
Indians  and  the  Eskimos.  Mathiassen's  first  assign- 
ment was  to  go  with  Peter  Freuchen  to  the  north, 
to  map  shores  of  Baffin! arid,  and  study  people  on 
whom  no  reliable  information  existed.  Then,  on 
his  return,  he  was  to  excavate  among  the  ruins  we 
had  found. 

I  was  to  study  the  inland  Eskimos,  with  special 
reference  to  the  spiritual  side  of  their  culture.  The 
Eskimo  members  of  the  party  were  divided  among 
the  several  sub-expeditions  as  needed,  and  two  of 
them  would  remain  on  guard  at  the  headquarters 
camp. 

We  had  a  pretty  good  supply  of  pemmican,  both 
for  ourselves  and  for  the  dogs,  as  well  as  canned  goods, 
which  would  form  the  basis  of  our  provisions.  We 
had  to  supplement  it,  however,  with  fresh  meat. 
We  were  told  that  Cape  Elizabeth,  toward  the  north, 
was  a  good  spot  for  walrus  at  this  time  of  year,  and 
I  therefore  went  off  with  Miteq  and  two  of  the  local 
natives  to  try  our  luck.  We  set  out  on  the  nth  of 
January.  Despite  some  difficulty,  owing  to  snow, 
which  drifted  thickly  at  times,  we  had  some  exciting 
caribou  hunting  on  the  ice  during  the  first  two  days. 
The  thermometer  stood  at  about  minus  50  C.  (63 
P.)  and  every  time  we  picked  up  our  guns  with  the 
naked  hand  the  cold  steel  took  the  skin  off. 

We  purchased  some  stores  of  meat  at  Lyon  Inlet, 
and  devoted  a  few  days  to  fetching  these,  after  winch 
we  set  out  again  to  the  Northward  to  find  the  village . 
None  of  us  knew  exactly  where  it  was,  as  the  natives 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      21 

had  not  yet  moved  down  to  the  coast,  but  were  en- 
camped some  way  inland  where  they  had  been  en- 
gaged on  their  autumn  caribou  hunting* 

The  27th  of  January  was  fine,  but  cold;  it  was 
bright  starlight  towards  the  dose  of  the  journey, 
but  we  had  had  a  long  and  tiring  day,  and  wished 
for  nothing  better  than  to  find  shelter  without  having 
to  build  it  ourselves. 

Suddenly  out  of  the  darkness  ahead  shot  a  long 
sledge  with  the  wildest  team  I  have  ever  seen. 
Fifteen  white  dogs  racing  down  at  full  speed,  with 
six  men  on  the  sledge.  They  came  down  on  us  at 
such  a  pace  that  we  felt  the  wind  of  them  as  they 
drew  alongside.  A  little  man  with  a  large  beard, 
completely  covered  with  ice,  leapt  out  and  came  to- 
wards me,  holding  out  his  hand  white  man's  fashion. 
Then  halting,  he  pointed  inland  to  some  snow  huts. 
His  keen  eyes  Were  alight  with  vitality  as  he  uttered 
the  ringing  greeting:  "Qujangnamik"  (thanks  to 
the  coming  guests). 

This  was  Aua,  the  aogakoq. 

Observing  that  my  dogs  were  tired  after  their 
day's  run,  he  invited  me  to  change  over  to  his  sledge, 
and  quietly,  but  with  authority,  told  off  one  of  the 
young  men  in  his  party  to  attend  to  mine,  Aua's 
dogs  gave  tongue  violently,  eager  to  be  off  again  and 
get  home  to  their  meal;  and  soon  we  were  racing 
away  towards  the  village.  A  brief  dash  at  break- 
neck speed,  and  we  arrived  at  the  verge  of  a  big  lake, 
where  snow  huts  with  gut  windows  sent  out  a  warm 
glow  of  welcome. 

The  women  came  out  to  greet  us,  and  Aua's  wife, 


22  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Orulo,  led  me  into  the  house.  It  was,  indeed,  a 
group  of  houses,  cleverly  built  together,  a  real  piece 
of  architecture  in  snow,  such  as  I  had  never  yet  seen. 
Five  huts,  boldly  arched,  joined  in  a  long  passage 
with  numerous  storehouses  built  out  separately, 
minor  passages  uniting  one  chamber  with  another, 
so  that  one  could  go  all  over  the  place  without  ex- 
posure to  the  weather.  The  various  huts  thus 
united  served  to  house  sixteen  people  in  all.  Orulo 
took  me  from  one  to  another,  introducing  the  occu- 
pants. They  had  been  living  here  for  some  time 
now,  and  the  heat  had  thawed  the  inner  surface  of 
the  walls,  forming  icicles  that  hung  down  gleaming 
in  the  soft  light  of  the  blubber  lamp.  It  looked  more 
like  a  cave  of  stalactites  than  an  ordinary  snow  hut, 
and  would  have  looked  chilly  but  for  the  masses  of 
thick,  heavy  caribou  skin  spread  about. 

Through  these  winding  passages,  all  lit  with  tiny 
blubber  lamps,  we  went  from  room  to  room,  shaking 
hands  with  one  after  another  of  the  whole  large 
family.  There  was  Aua's  eldest  son  Nataq,  with 
his  wife,  and  the  youngest  son  Ijarak  who  lived  with 
his  fifteen-year-old  sweetheart;  there  was  Aua's  aged 
sister  Natseq  with  her  son,  son-in-law  and  a  flock  of 
children;  and  finally,  out  in  the  farthest  end  of  the 
main  passage,  the  genial  Kuvdlo  with  his  wife  and 
a  newborn  infant. 

It  was  the  first  time  I  had  visited  so  large  a  house- 
hold, and  I  was  much  impressed  by  the  patriarchal 
aspect  of  the  whole.  <  Aua  was  unquestioned  master 
in  his  own  house,  ordering  the  comiags  and  goings 
aad  doings  of  aH,  but  he  and  his  wife  addressed  each 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      23 

other  and  the  rest  with  the  greatest  kindness,  and 
not  a  little  fun;  an  atmosphere  of  genial  good  humor 
was  evident  throughout. 

Hot  tea,  in  unlimited  quantity,  was  welcome  after 
our  long  hours  in  the  cold,  and  this  being  followed  by 
a  large,  fat  freshly  cooked  hare,  it  was  not  long  before 
appetite  gave  way  to  ease,  and  we  settled  ourselves 
comfortably  among  the  soft  and  pleasant  smelling 
caribou  skins. 

We  explained  that  we  had  come  down  to  hunt 
walrus,  and  the  news  was  greeted  with  acclamation 
by  our  host  and  his  party.  They  had  been  thinking 
of  doing  the  same  themselves,  and  it  was  now  sug- 
gested that  the  whole  village  should  move  down  to 
some  snowdrifts  on  the  lowlying  land  at  Cape 
Elizabeth.  They  had  been  hunting  inland  all  the 
summer,  and  there  were  numerous  good  meat  depots 
established  in  the  neighborhood.  There  was  oil 
enough  to  warm  up  the  houses  for  a  while,  but  the 
last  bag  of  blubber  faad  already  been  opened.  We 
decided  therefore  to  go  titrating  on  the  ice,  It  was 
necessary  first  of  all,  however,  to  spe®&  ooie  day  in 
fetching  in  stores  of  caribou  meat  from  the  depots, 
as  there  was  no  saying  how  long  it  might  be  before 
we  procured  any  other. 

On  the  day  of  the  final  move,  all  were  up  betimes 
and  busily  at  work.  Pots  and  dishes  and  kitchen 
utensils  generally  were  trundled  out  through  the 
passages,  with  great  bales  of  caribou  skins,  some 
new  and  untouched,  others  more  or  less  prepared, 
and  huge  unwieldly  bundles  of  clothing,  men's, 
women's  and  children's,  The  things  had  not  seemed 


24  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

to  take  up  much  room  within  doors,  where  every- 
thing had  its  place  and  use,  but  the  whole  collection 
stacked  outside  in  the  open  air  looked  as  cumbrous 
and  chaotic,  as  unmistakably  "moving"  as  the 
worldly  goods  of  any  city  and  surburban  family 
waiting  on  the  pavement  for  the  furniture  van. 

Just  at  the  last  moment,  when  the  sledges  were 
loaded  up  to  the  full,  and  the  teams  ready  to  start, 
I  had  the  good  fortune  to  witness  a  characteristic 
little  ceremony;  the  initiation  of  an  infant  setting 
out  on  its  first  journey  into  the  world. 

An  opening  appeared  somewhere  at  the  back  of 
Kuvdlo's  house,  and  through  it  came  crawling  Mrs. 
Kuvdlo  with  the  little  new-born  infant  in  her  arms. 
She  planted  herself  in  front  of  the  hut  and  stood 
waiting  until  Aua  appeared.  Aua,  of  course,  was 
the  spiritual  shepherd  of  the  flock.  He  stepped 
forward  towards  the  child,  bared  its  head,  and  plac- 
ing his  lips  close  to  its  face,  uttered  the  following 
heathen  equivalent  of  a  morning  prayer: 

"I  rise  up  from  rest, 

Moving  swiftly  as  the  raven's  wing 

I  rise  up  to  meet  the  day— 

Wa-wa. 

"My  face  is  turned  from  the  dark  of  night 
My  gaze  toward  the  dawn, 
Toward  the  whitening  dawn." 

It  was  the  child's  first  journey,  and  the  morning 
hymn  was  a  magic  formula  to  bring  it  luck  through 
life. 


A   WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      25 

The  winter  ice  extends  some  miles  out  from  the 
shore,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  firm  as  land. 
Then  comes  the  water,  with  pack  ice  drifting  this 
way  and  that  according  to  wind  and  current.  When 
the  wind  is  blowing  off  shore,  holes  appear  in  the  ice 
just  at  the  edge,  and  the  walrus  follow  these,  diving 
down  to  the  bottom  to  feed. 

Aua  and  I  had  settled  ourselves,  like  the  others, 
in  comparative  shelter  behind  a  hummock  of  ice, 
with  a  good  view  all  round.  The  vigil  was  by  no 
means  monotonous;  there  was  something  going  cm 
all  the  time,  calling  up  memories  of  past  hunting. 
The  pack  ice  was  in  constant  movement,  surging  and 
straining  and  groaning  at  every  check.  Now  and 
thai  a  gap  would  appear,  and  the  naked  water  sent 
up  a  freezing  mist  like  blue  smoke,  through  which 
we  could  just  discern  the  black  shapes  of  the  walrus 
rising  to  breathe.  We  could  hear  their  long,  slow 
gasp — and  thai  down  they  went  to  their  feeding 
grounds  below. 

We  had  both  experienced  it  aS  many  a  time  before; 
and  the  familiar  sights  and  sotmds  loosened  our 
tongues  in  recollection. 

"Men  and  the  beasts  are  much  alike,"  said  Aua 
sagely.  "And  so  it  was  our  fathers  believed  that 
men  could  be  animals  for  a  time,  then  men  again." 
So  he  told  the  story  of  a  bear  he  had  once  observed, 
hunting  walrus  like  a  human  being,  creeping  up  and 
taking  cover,  till  it  got  within  range,  when  it  flung 
a  huge  block  of  ice  that  struck  its  victim  senseless. 

Then  suddenly  Aua  himself  gave  a  start— he  had 
been  keeping  a  good  look  out  all  the  time — and 


26  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

pointed  to  where  Miteq  was  standing  with  his  har- 
poon raised.  Just  ahead  of  him  was  a  tiny  gap  in 
the  ice,  the  merest  puddle,  with  barely  room  for  the 
broad  back  of  a  walrus  that  now  appeared.  Miteq 
waited  till  the  head  came  up,  and  then,  before  the 
creature  had  time  to  breathe,  drove  his  harpoon  deep 
into  the  blubber  of  its  flank.  There  was  a  gurgle 
of  salt  water,  a  fountain  of  spray  flung  out  over  the 
ice,  and  the  walrus  disappeared.  But  Miteq  had 
already  thrust  his  ice-axe  through  the  loop  at  the 
end  of  his  harpoon  line,  and  the  walrus  was  held. 

We  hurried  up  and  helped  to  haul  it  in,  despatched 
it,  and  set  about  the  work  of  cutting  up.  This  was 
ccmpleted  before  dark,  and  when  we  drove  in  that 
night  to  the  new  snow  palace  at  Itibleriang,  I  was 
proud  to  feel  that  one  of  my  own  party  had  given 
these  professionals  a  lead  on  their  own  ground. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  at  our  arrival;  a  full- 
grown  walrus  means  meat  and  blubber  for  many 
days,  and  this  was  the  first  day  we  had  been  out. 
There  was  no  longer  any  need  to  stint  the  blubber 
for  the  lamps,  and  there  was  food  in  plenty  for  our- 
selves and  the  dogs. 

A  well-stocked  larder  sets  one's  mind  at  rest,  and 
me  feds  more  at  liberty  to  consider  higher  things. 
Also,  our  surroundings  generally  were  comfortable 
enough.  The  new  snow  hut  was  not  quite  as  large 
as  the  former,  and  lacked  the  fantastic  icicle  adorn- 
ment within;  but  it  was  easier  to  make  it  warm  and 
cosy.  The  main  portion,  the  residence  of  Aua  and 
his  wife,  was  large  enough  to  sleep  twenty  with  ease. 
Opening  out  of  this,  through  a  lofty  portal,  was  a 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      27 

kind  of  entrance  hall,  where  you  brush  off  the  snow 
before  coming  in  to  the  warmth  of  the  inner  apart- 
ment. On  the  opposite  side  again  was  a  large,  light 
annex,  accommodating  two  families.  As  long  as  there 
was  blubber  enough,  seven  or  eight  lamps  were  kept 
burning,  and  the  place  was  so  warm  that  one  could 
go  about  half  naked  and  enjoy  it. 

Which  shows  what  can  be  made  out  of  a  snowdrift 
when  you  know  how  to  go  about  it. 

Au§i  gave  me  leave  to  ask  questions,  and  promised 
to  answer  them.  And  I  questioned  him  accordingly, 
chiefly  upon  matters  of  religion,  having  already  per- 
ceived that  the  religious  ideas  of  these  people  must 
be  in  the  main  identical  with  those  of  the  Greenland 
Eskimo. 

A  prominent  character  in  the  Greenland  mythol- 
ogy is  the  Mistress  of  the  Sea,  who  lives  on  the  floor 
of  the  ocean.  I  asked  Aua  to  tell  me  all  he  could 
about  her.  Nothjng  loath,  he  settled  himself  to  the 
task,  and  with  eloquent  gestures  and  a  voice  that 
rose  and  fell  in  accord  with  the  tenor  of  his  theme, 
he  told  the  story  of  the  goddess  of  meat  from  the 
sea. 

Briefly,  it  is  as  follows:  There  was  once  a  girl 
who  refused  all  offers  of  marriage,  until  at  last  she 
was  enticed  away  by  a  petrel  disguised  as  a  handsome 
young  man.  After  living  with  him  for  some  time, 
she  was  rescued  by  her  father,  but  the  petrel,  setting 
out  in  pursuit,  raised  a  violent  storm,  and  the  father,  in 
terror,  threw  the  girl  overboard  to  lighten  the  boat. 
She  dung  to  the  side,  and  he  chopped  off,  first  the  tips 
of  her  fingers,  then  the  other  joints,  and  finally  the 


28  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

wrists.  And  the  joints  turned  into  seal  and  walrus 
as  they  fell  into  the  sea*  But  the  girl  sank  to  the 
bottom,  and  lives  there  now,  and  rules  over  all  the 
creatures  of  the  sea.  She  is  called  Takanaluk  Arna- 
luk;  and  it  is  her  father  who  is  charged  with  the 
punishment  of  those  who  have  sinned  on  earth,  and 
are  not  yet  allowed  to  enter  the  land  of  the  dead. 

I  enquired  then  as  to  this  land  of  the  dead,  and 
the  general  arrangements  for  their  after-life.  This 
falls  mainly  into  two  parts. 

When  a  human  being  dies,  the  soul  leaves  the  earth, 
and  goes  to  one  or  the  other  of  two  distinct  regions. 
Some  souls  go  up  into  heaven  and  become  Uvdlor- 
miut,  the  People  of  Day.  Their  country  lies  over 
towards  the  dawn.  Others  again  go  clown  under 
the  sea,  where  there  is  a  narrow  belt  of  kind  with 
water  on  either  side.  These  are  called  Qimiujarmiut, 
the  People  of  the  Narrow  Lund,  But  in  either  place 
they  are  happy  and  at  case,  and  there  is  always  plenty 
to  eat. 

Those  who  pass  to  the  Land  of  Day  arc  people  who 
have  been  drowned,  or  murdered.  It  is  said  that 
the  Land  of  Day  is  the  land  of  glad  and  happy  souls. 
It  is  a  great  country,  with  many  caribou,  and  the 
people  there  live  only  for  pleasure,  They  play  ball 
most  of  the  time,  playing  at  football  with  the  skull 
of  a  walrus,  and  laughing  and  singing  as  they  play* 
It  is  this  game  of  the  souls  playing  at  ball  that  we 
can  see  in  the  sky  as  the  northern  lights. 

The  greater  among  the  angakoqs,  or  wizards,  often 
go  up  on  a  visit  to  the  People  of  Day,  just  fur  pleasure* 
Such  are  called  Pavungnartut,  which  means,  those 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      29 

who  rise  up  to  heaven.  The  wizard  preparing  to 
set  out  on  such  a  journey  is  placed  at  the  back  of  the 
bench  in  his  hut,  with  a  curtain  of  skin  to  hide  him 
from  view.  His  hands  must  be  tied  behind  his  back, 
and  his  head  lashed  fast  to  his  knees;  he  wears 
breeches,  but  nothing  more,  the  upper  part  of  his 
body  being  bare.  When  he  is  thus  tied  up,  the  men 
who  have  tied  him  take  fire  from  the  lamp  on  the 
point  of  a  knife  and  pass  it  over  his  head,  drawing 
rings  in  the  air,  and  saying  at  the  same  time:  "Nior- 
ruarniartoq  aifale"  (Let  him  who  is  going  on  a  visit 
now  be  carried  away). 

Then  all  the  lamps  are  extinquished,  and  all  those 
present  close  their  eyes.  So  they  sit  for  a  long  while 
in  deep  silence.  But  after  a  time  strange  sounds  are 
heard  about  the  place;  throbbing  and  whispering 
sounds;  and  then  suddenly  comes  the  voice  of  the 
wizard  himself  crying  loudly : 
"  Halala— halaiale  halala—  halalale! " 
And  those  present  then  must  answer  "ale— ale- 
ale."  Then  there  is  a  rushing  sound,  and  all  know 
that  an  opening  has  been  made,  like  the  blowhole 
of  a  seal,  through  which  the  soul  of  the  wizard  can 
fly  up  into  heaven,  aided  by  all  the  stars  that  once 

were  men. 

Often  the  wizard  will  remain  away  for  some  time, 
and  in  that  case,  the  guests  will  entertain  themselves 
meanwhile  by  singing  old  songs,  but  keeping  their 
eyes  closed  all  the  time.  It  is  said  that  there  is 
great  rejoicing  in  the  Land  of  Day  when  a  wizard 
comes  on  a  visit.  The  people  there  come  rushing  out 
of  their  houses  all  at  once;  but  the  houses  have  no 


30  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

doors  for  going  in  or  out,  the  souls  just  pass  through 
the  walls  where  they  please,  or  through  the  roof, 
coming  out  without  making  even  a  hole*  And 
though  they  can  be  seen,  yet  they  are  as  if  made  of 
nothing.  They  hurry  towards  the  newcomer,  glad 
to  greet  him  and  make  him  welcome,  thinking  that 
it  is  the  soul  of  a  dead  man  that  comes,  and  one  of 
themselves.  But  when  he  says  "Putdlaliuvunga" 
(I  am  still  a  creature  of  flesh  and  blood)  they  turn 
sorrowfully  away. 

He  stays  there  awhile,  and  then  returns  to  earth, 
where  his  fellows  are  awaiting  him,  and  tells  of  all 
he  has  seen. 

The  souls  that  pass  to  the  Narrow  Land  are  those 
of  people  who  died  of  sickness  in  house  or  tent.  They 
are  not  allowed  to  go  straight  up  into  the  land  of 
souls,  because  they  have  not  been  purified  by  violent 
death;  they  must  first  go  down  to  Takanalukarnaluk 
under  the  sea,  and  do  penance  for  their  sins.  When 
all  their  penance  is  completed,  then  they  go  either 
to  the  Land  of  Day  or  stay  in  the  Narrow  Land,  and 
live  there  as  happily  as  those  who  are  without  sin. 

The  Narrow  Land  is  not  like  the  Land  of  Day;  it 
is  a  coast  land,  with  all  manner  of  sea  creatures  in 
abundance,  and  there  is  much  hunting,  and  all  de- 
light in  it. 

I  enquired  whether  the  wizards  did  not  make  other 
excursions  into  the  supernatural,  for  some  special 
purpose.  Aua  informed  me  that  this  was  the  case, 
and  kindly  gave  me  further  details. 

Should  the  hunting  fail  at  any  season,  causing  a 
dearth  of  meat,  then  it  is  the  business  of  the  Angakoq 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      31 

to  seek  out  the  Mistress  of  the  Sea  and  persuade  her 
to  release  some  of  the  creatures  she  is  holding  back. 
The  preparations  for  such  a  journey  are  exactly  the 
same  as  in  the  case  of  a  visit  to  the  Land  of  Day, 
already  described.  The  wizard  sits,  if  in  winter,  on 
the  bare  snow,  in  summer,  on  the  bare  earth.  He 
remains  in  meditation  for  a  while,  and  then  invokes 
his  helping  spirits,  crying  again  and  again: 

' '  Tagf a  arqutinilerpoq — tagf a  neruvtulerpoq ! " 
(The  way  is  made  ready  for  me;  the  way  is  opening 
before  me.) 

Whereupon  all  those  present  answer  in  chorus: 
"Taimalilerdle"  (let  it  be  so). 

Then,  when  the  helping  spirits  have  arrived,  the 
earth  opens  beneath  the  wizard  where  he  sits;  often, 
however,  only  to  close  again;  and  he  may  have  to 
strive  long  with  hidden  forces  before  he  can  finally 
cry  that  the  way  is  open.  When  this  is  announced, 
those  present  cry  together:  Let  the  way  be  open, 
let  there  be  way  for  into!  Then  oomes  a  voice  close 
under  the  ground:  "halala— fee — he — he"  aad  again 
farther  off  under  the  passage,  and  again  stffi  farther 
and  ever  farther  away  until  at  last  it  is  no  longer 
heard;  and  then  all  know  that  the  wizard  is  on  his 
way  to  the  Mistress  of  the  Sea. 

Meantime,  those  in  the  house  sing  spirit  songs  in 
chorus  to  pass  the  time,  It  may  happen  that  the 
clothes  which  the  wizard  has  taken  off  come  to  life 
of  themselves,  and  fly  about  over  the  heads  of  the 
singers,  who  must  keep  their  eyes  closed  all  the  time. 
And  one  can  hear  the  sighing  and  breathing  of  sotds 
long  dead.  All  the  lamps  have  been  put  out,  and  tibe 


32  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

sighing  and  breathing  of  the  departed  souls  is  as  the 
voice  of  spirits  moving  deep  in  the  sea ;  like  the  breath- 
ing of  sea-beasts  far  below. 

One  of  the  songs  is  a  standing  item  on  these  occa- 
sions; it  is  only  to  be  sung  by  the  elders  of  the  tribe, 
and  the  text  runs  thus : 

"We  stretch  forth  our  hands 

To  lift  thee  up. 

We  are  without  food, 

Without  fruits  of  our  hunting. 

Come  up  then  from  below, 

From  the  hollow  place 

Force  a  way  through. 

We  are  without  food, 

And  here  we  lie  down 

We  stretch  forth  our  hands 

To  lift  thee  up." 

Great  wizards  find  a  passage  opening  of  itself  for 
their  journey  down  under  the  earth  to  the  sea,  and 
m§et  with  no  obstacles  on  the  way.  On  reaching 
the  house  of  Takanalukarnaluk,  they  find  a  wall  has 
been  built  in  front  of  the  entrance;  this  shows  that 
she  is  hostile  towards  men  for  the  time  being.  The 
wizard  must  then  break  down  the  wall  and  level  it 
to  the  earth.  The  house  itself  is  like  an. ordinary 
human  dwelling,  but  without  a  roof,  being  open  at 
the  top  so  that  the  woman  seated  by  h^fllamp  can 
keep  an  eye  on  the  dwellings  of  men,  The  only 
other  difficulty  which  the  wizard  has  to  encounter 
is  a  big  dog  which  lies  stretched  across  the  passage, 
barring  the  way.  It  shows  its  teeth  and  growls, 
impatient  at  being  disttirbed  at  its  meal— for  it 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      33 

will  often  be  found  gnawing  the  bones  of  a  still 
living  human  being.  The  wizard  must  show  no  sign 
of  fear  or  hesitation,  but  thrust  the  dog  aside  and 
hurry  into  the  house.  Here  he  meets  the  guardian 
of  the  souls  in  purgatory,  who  endeavors  to  seize 
him  and  place  him  with  the  rest,  but  on  stating  that 
he  is  still  alive:  "I  atn  flesh  and  blood,"  he  is 
allowed  to  pass.  The  Mother  of  the  Sea  is  then 
discovered  seated  with  her  bade  to  the  lamp  and  to 
the  animals  gathered  round  it—  this  being  a  sign  of 
anger—  her  hair  falls  loose  and  dishevelled  over  her 
face.  The  wizard  must  at  onee  take  her  by  the 
shoulder  and  turn  her  face  the  other  way,  at  the 
some  time,  stroking  her  hair  and  smoothing  it  out* 
He  then  says: 

11  Those  above  can  no  longer  help  the  seal  up  out 
of  the  sea/' 

To  which  she  replies;  "It  is  your  own  sins  and 
ill  doing  that  bar  the  way," 

The  wizard  then  exerts  aU  his  powers  of  peisuasion, 
and  when  at  last  her  anger  is  appeased,  she  takes  the 
animals  one  by  one  and  drops  them  on  the  floor. 
And  now  a  violent  commotion  arises!  and  the 


disappear  out  into  the  sea;  this  is  a  sign  of  rich 
hunting  and  plenty  to  come. 

AH  soon  as  the  wizard  returns  to  earth,  all  those 
in  the  house  are  called  upon  to  confess  any  breach 
of  tabu  which  they  may  have  committed. 

All  cry  out  in  chorus,  each  eager  to  confess  his 
fault  lost  it  should  be  the  cause  of  famine  and  disaster 
to  all  And  in  this  way  "much  is  made  known 
which  had  otherwise  been  hidden;  many  secrets  are 


34  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

told."  But  when  the  sinners  come  forward  weeping 
and  confess,  then  all  is  well,  for  in  confession  lies 
forgiveness.  All  rejoice  that  disaster  has  been 
averted,  and  a  plentiful  supply  of  food  assured; 
11  there  is  even  something  like  a  feeling  of  gratitude 
towards  the  "sinners"  added  Ana  naively. 

I  enquired  whether  all  wizards  were  able  to  ac- 
complish such  an  errand,  and  was  informed  that  only 
the  greatest  of  them  could  do  so.  One  of  the  greatest 
angakoqs  Aua  had  known  was  a  woman.  And  he 
told  us  the  story  of  Uvavnuk,  the  woman  who  was 
filled  with  magic  power  all  in  a  moment.  A  ball  of 
fire  came  down  from  the  sky  and  struck  her  senseless ; 
but  when  she  came  to  herself  again,  the  spirit  of 
light  was  within  her.  And  all  her  power  was  used 
to  help  her  fellows.  When  she  sang,  all  those 
present  were  loosed  from  their  burden  of  sin  and 
wrong;  evil  and  deceit  vanished  as  a  speck  of  dust 
blown  from  the  hand. 

And  this  was  her  song: 

"The  great  sea  has  set  me  in  motion, 

Set  me  adrift, 

Moving  me  as  the  weed  moves  in  a  river. 

The  arch  of  sky  and  mightiness  of  storms 
Have  moved  the  spirit  within  me, 
Till  I  am  carried  away 
Trembling  with  joy." 

All  had  listened  so  intently  to  Aua's  stories  of  the 
supernatural  that  none  noticed  the  women  had  ne^ 
glected  their  duty,  and  the  la&rps  were  almost  out.  It 
was  indeed  an  impressive  scene;  men  and  women  sat 


A  WIZARD  AND  HIS  HOUSEHOLD      35 

in  silence,  hushed  and  overwhelmed  by  the  glimpses 
of  a  spirit  world  revealed  by  one  of  its  priests* 

By  the  I4th  of  February,  our  whole  party  was 
assembled  at  Itibleriang.  The  Baffin  Land  party 
were  to  stay  on  for  a  few  days  more,  walrus  hunting; 
the  rest  of  us,  who  were  going  south,  split  up  into  de- 
tachments ;  Miteq  and  Anarulunguaq  went  with  me. 
Birket-Smith  and  Bangsted  were  also  with  us  most 
of  the  way* 

On  a  fine  sunny  morning  then — February  16 — we 
waved  goodbye  to  our  comrades  and  set  off  homewards. 
This  is  the  first  time  since  leaving  Denmark  that  we 
have  been  separated  for  any  long  or  indefinite  period, 
and  there  is  much  important  work  to  be  done  in  the 
eight  months  which  must  elapse  before  we  meet  again. 

After  three  cold  days  on  the  road,  and  warm  nights 
in  comfortable  snow  huts,  we  reached  home  in  a  gale 
of  wind  that  is  no  discredit  to  this  windy  region. 
So  dense  was  the  whirling  snow  that  the  whole  of 
the  last  day's  journey  was  accomplished  with  bent 
backs  and  bowed  heads;  we  had  literally  to  creep 
along,  following  the  well-wo£n  sledge  track  ^ith  <mr 
noses  almost  to  the  ground.  It  was  the  only  way 
we  could  be  sure  of  crossing  Gore  Bay  from  Qajugfit 
without  missing  the  little  island  that  was  our  goal. 
When  at  last  we  got  in,  our  faces  were  completely 
coated  with  ice,  all  save  two  small  gaps  round  the 
eyes  that  just  enabled  us  to  see.  Oddly  enough, 
however,  we  had  no  feeling  of  cold;  possibly  the 
exertion,  with  our  heavy  skin  garments,  had  kept  us 
warm,  or  perhaps  the  Eskimos  are  right  in  declaring 
that  "heat  comes  out  of  the  earth"  in  a  blizzard* 


CHAPTER  IV 

FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

/~\UR  route  lay  southward,  to  the  country  of  the 
^^  inland  Eskimos  of  the  Barren  Grounds,  with 
Chesterfield,  the  "Capital"  of  Hudson  Bay,  as  our 
first  objective. 

A  last  farewell,  and  off  we  went,  the  dogs  giving 
tongue  gaily  as  they  raced  away.  We  followed  the 
old  familiar  high  road  down  to  Repulse  Bay.  We 
were  anxious  to  make  the  most  of  each  day's  run 
while  the  dogs  were  still  fresh,  and  intended  therefore 
to  make  but  a  short  stay  at  Captain  Cleveland's. 
Actually,  however,  matters  turned  out  otherwise.  A 
blizzard  from  the  north-west  whirled  us  down  to 
his  place,  and  kept  on  for  three  days  in  a  flurry  of 
snow  that  made  it  impossible  to  see  an  arm's  length 
ahead. 

At  last,  when  the  storm  had  thrashed  itself  out, 
we  made  ready  to  push  on.  Our  loads  weighed  some- 
thing like  500  kilos  per  sledge,  and  ran  heavily.  We 
had  reckoned,  at  starting,  to  make  do  with  the  iron 
runners,  as  generally  used  in  Greenland,  but  the 
first  day's  journey  showed  that  they  dragged  in  the 
snow  to  such  a  degree  that  the  pace  was  of  the  slow- 
est, and  would  soon  spoil  the  temper  of  the  dogs. 
We  had  therefore,  while  at  Cleveland's,  had  recourse 

36 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       37 

to  ice-shoeing,  a  great  improvement  on  the  naked 
iron,  and  a  triumph  of  Eskimo  invention.  The 
process  is  complicated,  and  should  be  described  in 
detail. 

As  long  as  the  snow  is  moist,  and  the  air  not  too 
cold,  iron  or  steel  rttnners  make  quite  good  going. 
But  as  soon  as  the  thermometer  falls  below  20°  C, 
they  begin  to  stick,  and  the  colder  it  gets,  the  worse 
it  is.  The  cold  makes  the  snow  dry  and  powdery, 
until  it  is  like  driving  through  sand,  the  runners 
screeching  and  whining  with  the  friction,  so  that 
even  light  loads  are  troublesome  to  move.  The 
Eskimos  of  earlier  days  of  course  knew  nothing  of 
iron  runners,  but  made  shift  with  a  patchwork  of 
walrus  tooth,  whalebone  or  horn,  cut  and  smoothed 
to  fit,  and  lashed  under  the  sledge.  These  runners 
acted  then  exactly  as  does  the  iron. 

It  had,  of  course,  been  observed  that  ice  ran  easiest 
over  snow,  and  obviously  it  would  be  an  advantage 
to  give  the  runners  a  coatnig  o£  fee* .  Btffc  this  was 
not  so  easy  to  begia  with.  Ice  *mfflid  not  hold  on 
iron  or  steel,  bone  or  wood*  Uliimately,  scmetee 
hit  on  the  idea  of  coating  the  runners  first  of  aH  with 
a  paste  made  from  peat  softened  in  water,  and  laying 
a  thin  coat  of  ice  on  after.  This  method  at  once 
proved  eminently  successful,  and  has  remained  un- 
surpassed for  rapid  running  with  heavy  loads,  despite 
numerous  experiments  made  with  other  materials  by 
various  expeditions.  It  has,  however,  the  disad- 
vantage of  being  a  lengthy  and  difficult  process  in 
its  application. 

The  first  requisite  is  to  find  the  peat;  or  failing  this, 


38  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

lichen  or  moss.    The  mass  should  in  any  case  be 
entirely  free  from  sand  or  grit.    It  has  then  to  be 
thawed,  crumbled  in  the  hands,  mixed  with  tepid 
water  and  kneaded  to  a  thick  paste  which  is  spread 
on  the  runners  in  the  form  of  a  ski,  broadest  in  front 
just  where  the  runners  curve  upward.    Even  in  very 
severe  cold  it  requires  a  day  to  freeze  thoroughly  on, 
and  not  until  then  can  the  coating  of  ice  be  applied. 
This  is  done  by  smearing  it  with  water,  using  a  brush 
or  a  piece  of  hide.    The  water  must  be  lukewarm, 
as  the  sudden  cooling  gives  a  harder  and  more  dur- 
able form  of  ice.    With  this  shoeing,  even  a  heavily 
laden  sledge  will  take  quite  considerable  obstacles, 
as  long  >as  the  movements  are  kept  fairly  smooth, 
avoiding  any  sudden  drop  that  might  crack  the  coat- 
ing of  ice.    Should  this  occur,  it  is  a  troublesome 
business  to  repair  it.    In  the  course  of  a  long  day's 
journey,  the  ice  gets  worn  through,  and  has  to  be 
renewed  once  or  twice;  it  is  therefore  necessary  to 
carry  water,  in  order  to  save  the  loss  of  time  oc- 
casioned by  first  melting  snow  or  ice. 

With  a  good  ice  shoeing  and  reasonably  level 
ground,  even  heavy  loads  will  run  as  smoothly  as 
in  a  slide,  without  fatiguing  the  teams. 

It  was  hopeless,  of  course,  to  go  out  in  the  blizzard 
himting  for  peat,  so  we  had  recourse  to  another 
means  in  this  case.  Mr.  Cleveland  had  plenty  of 
flour  at  the  store;  we  purchased  some  of  this,  and 
worked  it  up  with  water  into  a  dough  which  proved 
excellent  for  the  purpose.  And  lest  any  shouJS  con- 
sider it  a  sinful  waste  of  foodstuffs  in,  a  region  ill 
provided  with  the  same,  I  may  reassure  my  readers 


YOUTH  AND  BEAUTY 
A  girl  from  Repulse  Bay,  with  the  big  fur  hood  falling  down  over  one  shoulder. 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       39 

with  the  information  that  the  flour  thtis  used  still 
fulfilled  its  proper  mission  in  the  end.  As  soon  as 
the  weather  grew  milder  and  ice  shoeing  was  no 
longer  needed,  the  dough  was  scraped  off  and  given 
to  the  dogs,  who  regarded  it  as  a  delicacy  of  the 
highest  order. 

We  were  rather  late  in  starting,  and  got  no  farther 
that  day  than  a  camp  of  snow  huts  on  the  western 
side  of  Repulse  Bay.  Here  we  were  kindly  received 
by  an  old  couple  who  had  settled  down  on  the  spot 
with  their  children  and  nearest  of  kin.  On  entering 
their  hut,  we  found,  to  our  astonishment,  rosaries 
hung  above  the  blubber  lamps  and  crucifixes  stuck 
into  the  snow  walls.  Our  host,  divining  the  question 
in  our  minds,  explained  at  once  that  he  had  met  a 
Roman  Catholic  missionary  far  to  the  south  some 
time  before,  and  had  been  converted  with  all  his 
family.  He  had  formerly  been  an  angakoq  himself; 
and  it  was  plain  to  see  ;that  he  was  an  honest  man, 
earnestly  believing  in  his  pow^s  aad  those  he  had 
invoked.  But,?ke  inforaaed  tis,  frdoa  the  moment  he 
first  listened  to  the  worfs  of  t&e  stranger  prfesst* 
his  helping  spirits  seemed  to  have  deserted  him; 
doubt  entered  into  his  mind,  he  felt  himself  alone 
and  forsaken,  helpless  in  face  of  the  tasks  which  had 
called  forth  his  strength  in  earlier  days.  At  last  he 
was  baptized,  and  since  then,  his  mind  had  been  at 
rest.  All  his  nearer  relatives  had  followed  his  ex- 
ample, and  all  now  seemed  anxious  to  make  us  un- 
derstand that  they  were  different  from  the  ordi 
heathen  we  had  met.  The  others  of  their  tribe 
given  them  the  name  of  Majulasut,  which 


40  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

they  who  crawl  upward,  as  indicating  that  they  had 
already  relinquished  their  foothold  upon  earth,  and 
sought  only  to  find  release  from  the  existence  to 
which  they  were  born. 

We  started  early  the  next  morning,  there  was  a 
broad  spit  of  land  to  cross  at  Beach  Point,  and  we 
were  eager  to  see  how  our  ice  shoeing  took  it.  The 
pace  was  good  enough;  but  we  had  hardly  begun  to 
congratulate  ourselves  on  this  before  we  discovered 
that  what  we  had  gained  for  the  dogs  we  had  lost 
for  ourselves.  Travelling  overland  in  Greenland  is 
quite  good  fun  for  the  most  part,  and  little  obstacles 
need  not  be  taken  too  seriously;  the  iron  runners 
will  take  no  harm  from  an  occasional  stone  or  point 
of  rock.  Here,  however,  we  have  to  leap  off  at  the 
first  sight  of  any  such  hindrance  ahead,  and  guide 
the  sledge  carefully  to  avoid  damage  to  the  fragile 
covering  of  ice.  Save  for  this,  however,  the  general 
result  is  admirable.  The  sledges  glide  as  if  their 
heavy  loads  were  feather  light,  and  we  can  keep  at 
a  sharp  trot  all  day,  despite  the  hilly  going.  It  is 
a  pleasure  to  see  how  little  exertion  is  required  on 
the  part  of  the  dogs;  the  sledges  run  almost  by  them- 
selves, with  just  a  momentary  pull  every  now  and 
again. 

We  halted  that  night  on  the  edge  of  a  lake,  and 
bmlt  a  snow  hut  for  shelter. 

It  was  a  cheerless  country  we  were  driving  through. 
Everything  one  saw  was  like  everything  else;  today's 
jofrney  was  just  yesterday's  over  again;  no  moun- 
talfas,  only  small  hills,  lakes  and  level  plain. 

Next  afternoon,  to  our  great  surprise,  we  met  a 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       41 

fellow  traveller  on  the  road.  A  sledge  appeared  in 
the  distance,  coming  straight  towards  its,  and  shortly 
after  we  had  the  pleasure  of  a  first  encounter  with 
the  famous  Royal  Canadian  Mounted  Police.  Both 
sledges  halted  as  we  came  together,  and  a  tall,  fair 
young  man  came  forward  and  introduced  himself 
as  Constable  Packett,  of  the  Mounted  Police  Head- 
quarters at  Chesterfield  Inlet,  on  his  way  out  to 
inspect  our  station, 

It  was  strange  to  us  to  meet  with  police  in  these 
regions;  and  we  were  at  once  impressed  by  the  energy 
with  which  Canada  seeks  to  maintain  kw  and  order 
in  the  northern  lands.  The  mounted  police,  a  service 
popular  throughout  the  country,  has  here  to  relin- 
quish its  splendid  horses  and  travel  by  dog  sledge, 
making  regular  visits  of  inspection  over  a  wide  extent 
of  territory.  Originally,  the  headquarters  here  was 
at  Cape  Fullertan,  a  couple  of  days*  journey  north- 
east  of  Chesterfield;  tibe  whaling  vessels  used  to  winter 
there,  and  the  somefwfaat  najfoad  society  of  the  whakr's 
camp  required  a  good  deal  of  k>o&g  after*  Tbe 
whaling  has  now  ceased,  but  the  Mcrarbed  Pofioe 
remains  as  a  permanent  institution  in  the  Canadian 
Arctic,  representing  the  Government  of  the  eodirtry 
and  its  laws,  in  regard  to  white  men  and  Eskimos 
alike. 

I  explained  to  Constable  Packett  that  he  would 
find  Bosun's  wife  and  some  of  our  Eskimos  at  the 
station;  and  recognizing  that  I  could  not  go  back 
with  him  myself  without  giving  up  the  journey  I 
had  planned,  he  very  kindly  agreed  to  make  do  with 
a  report,  which  I  promised  to  hand  in  at  Chesterfield, 


42  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

instead  of  reqttiring  my  personal  attendance.  He 
himself,  however,  would  have  to  go  on  to  our  head- 
quarters, in  accordance  with  his  instructions. 

I  confess  to  being  somewhat  impressed  by  the 
Canadian  Mounted  Police  as  undaunted  travellers. 
Our  friend  here,  for  instance,  was  out  for  a  little  run 
of  some  two  thousand  kilometres.  He  reckoned  to 
be  two  and  a  half  months  on  the  way,  and  during 
the  whole  of  that  time,  he  would  have  no  shelter  but 
a  snow  hut,  save  for  the  few  days  at  Captain  Cleve- 
land's and  our  station.  We  bade  him  a  hearty  fare- 
well, and  were  soon  out  of  sight. 

At  noon  on  the  3rd  of  April  we  came  up  with  the 
icebound  vessel  Fort  Chesterfield  at  Berthie  Har- 
bor, a  little  to  the  north  of  Wager  Bay.  Despite 
all  good  resolutions  as  to  not  breaking  the  journey 
while  it  was  light  enough  to  see,  we  found  it  impossible 
to  pass  by  these  cheery  seamen's  door  without  a  halt. 
Captain  Berthie  himself  was  away,  investigating  the 
possibilities  of  some  new  harbor  works.  I  had  met 
him  before,  and  spent  some  days  with  him  on  the 
road.  Berthie  had  all  the  good  qualities  of  the 
French  Canadian,  and  in  addition,  was  thoroughly 
familiar  with  all  forms  of  travel  in  the  Arctic,  and 
speaks  Eskimo  fluently.  His  crew,  consisting  ex- 
clusively of  young  men  from  Newfoundland,  were 
full  of  praise  for  their  captain;  and  entertained  us  in 
his  absence  with  cheerful  hospitality. 

A  little  village  of  immigrant  Netsilik  natives  had 
spna&g  tip  about  the  vessel,  and  I  took  the  oppor- 
frBiity  of  paying  them  a  visit*  The  oldest  inhabitant 
was  an  ag^d  veteran  from  the  region  of  the  North 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       43 

Pole,  named  Manilaq.  He  had  been  a  great  fighter 
in  his  day,  but  was  now  reduced  to  resting  on  his 
laurels.  He  lived  in  a  big  snow  hut  with  his  children 
and  grandchildren,  who  still  regarded  him  with  great 
respect,  treating  him  indeed,  as  if  he  were  their  chief. 
He  was  an  excellent  story-teller,  and  always  sure  of 
a  large  audience*  Unfortunately,  I  had  not  time 
myself  to  draw  upon  his  stock  of  folk  lore  and  per- 
sonal recollections.  It  was  essential  to  my  plans 
that  we  should  get  as  far  on  into  the  Barren  Grounds 
as  possible  while  the  winter  lasted.  I  hoped,  how- 
ever, to  have  an  opportunity  of  meeting  the  old 
fellow  later.  As  it  turned  out,  this  was  not  to  be. 
A  little  while  after  we  had  left,  he  committed  suicide, 
in  the  presence  of  his  family,  preferring  to  move  to 
the  eternal  hunting  grounds  rather  than  live  on 
growing  feebler  under  the  burden  of  days. 

The  time  passed  rapdly  BOW,  and  our  sole  object 
was  to  get  <m  as  far  ES  p6ssibl&  W^  took  short  cuts 
Tfrlierever  we  could,  though  tmveffing  ov^fend  was 
always  an  anxious  business,  trnacccistomecl  as  we 
were  at  first  to  the  use  of  this  delicate  ice-shoeing. 
Thus  we  cut  across  the  flat  country  from  Berthie 
Harbor  due  west  down  to  Wager  Inlet;  the  mouth 
of  the  great  fjord  here  is  never  frozen  over,  owing 
to  the  strength  of  the  current.  From  here  we  came 
up  on  land  again,  and  at  last,  on  the  loth  of  April, 
reached  Roe's  Welcome,  at  a  bay  called  Iterdlak. 
We  could  now  follow  the  coast  right  down  to  Chester- 
field, and  though  the  country  itself  was  very  monot- 
onous, there  was  plenty  to  interest  us  here.  Every 


44  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

time  we  rounded  a  headland  we  eame  upon  the  ruins 
of  some  old  settlement,  which  were  eagerly  investi- 
gated. They  were  not  the  work  of  the  present  popu- 
lation, but  of  some  earlier  inhabitants,  evidently  of 
a  high  degree  of  culture  and  well  up  in  stone  archi- 
tecture. The  ruins  consisted  of  fallen  house  walls, 
store-chambers,  and  tent  rings — all  of  stone — with 
frameworks  for  kayaks  and  umiaks,  such  as  one 
finds  in  Greenland,  where  the  boats  are  set  up  to 
keep  the  skins  from  being  eaten  by  the  dogs.  There 
was  evidence  of  abundant  hunting  by  sea,  in  the  form 
of  numerous  bones  scattered  about  wherever  the 
groiind  lay  free  from  snow.  Meat  cellars  were  also 
frequently  found,  and  to  judge  from  their  size,  there 
should  have  been  no  lack  of  food*  Every  little 
headland  was  fenced  in  by  stone  cairns  placed  so 
close  together  that  they  looked  from  a  distance  like 
human  beings  assembled  to  bid  us  welcome.  They 
were  set  out  along  definite  lines  across  the  ground, 
and  had  once  been  decked  with  fluttering  rags  of 
skin  on  top,  serving  to  scare  the  caribou  when  driven 
down  to  the  coast,  where  the  hunters  lay  in  wait  in 
their  kayaks,  ready  to  spear  them  as  soon  as  they  took 
to  the  water* 

All  these  ruins  were  the  work  of  the  "Tunit"; 
and  from  all  that  we  could  see,  this  highly  developed 
coastal  race  with  their  kayaks  end  umiaks,  must 
have  been  identical  with  the  Eskimos  that  came  into 
Greenland  from  these  regions  a  thousand  years  ago. 
Both  Miteq  and  Arnarultik  felt  thoroughly  at  home 
ia  these  surroun<fingsl  Much  of  what  they  had  met 
with  among  the  living  natives  of  the  present  day  was 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       45 

strange  to  them,  but  these  relics  of  the  dead  from  a 
bygone  age  were  such  as  they  knew  from  their  own 
everyday  life  at  home. 

We  followed  the  coast  southward,  keeping  close 
in  to  shore,  as  the  ice  here  was  good  and  level.  On 
the  1 6th  of  April  we  passed  Cape  Fullerton,  where 
some  empty  buildings  still  remain  from  the  great 
days  of  the  whaling  camps,  It  was  late  in  the 
afternoon,  and  the  sun  shone  warmly  over  the  spit 
of  land,  as  if  in  welcome.  It  was  tempting;  here  we 
could  find  shelter  in  a  real  house  if  we  wished;  but 
we  had  heard  that  there  were  natives  at  Depot  Island, 
and  our  eagerness  to  meet  them  outweighed  consider- 
ations of  mere  creature  comfort.  We  drove  on, 
therefore,  until  the  twilight  forced  us  to  camp  on  the 
site  of  a  famous  rain,  known  as  Inugssivik.  It  had 
evidently  been  a  big  village  at  one  time,  and  the  huge 
stones  that  had  been  placed  in  position  showed  that 
the  folk  who  Eved  there  were  **ot  afraid  of  hard 
work.  Our  guide,  lattjaq,  Informed  us  that  in  the 
olden  days,  there  was  always  war  between  these 
people  here  and  the  tribes  from  Repulse  Bay; 
hostilities  had  continued  throughout  a  number  of 
years,  until  the  villagers  here  had  been  entirely 
exterminated. 

Next  morning,  as  soon  as  it  was  fully  light,  we 
perceived  a  small  hillock  far  to  the  south  amid  the 
ice.  This  was  Depot  Island,  which  juts  up  out  of 
the  great  white  expanse  like  the  head  of  a  seal  come 
up  to  breathe.  It  was  some  distance  away,  but  we 
hoped  to  reach  it  before  dark.  We  have  given  the 
dogs  an  easy  time  lately,  and  it  would  do  them  no 


46  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

harm  to  let  them  know  we  were  in  a  hurry.  A  good 
driver  should  have  the  power  of  communicating  his 
feelings  to  his  team,  so  that  the  animals  feel  his  own 
eagerness  to  get  forward  in  case  of  need.  And  it 
was  not  long  before  our  dogs  realized  that  the  old 
steady  jogtrot  would  not  do  today;  something  more 
was  needed.  And  accordingly,  they  were  soon  at 
full  gallop;  the  sledges,  lightened  of  all  the  dog-feed 
we  had  used  up  since  leaving  Repulse  Bay,  flew  over 
the  ice  at  such  a  pace  that  the  occasional  jerks  at 
the  traces  threw  them  sideways  on,  and  us  nearly 
off.  A  little  after  noon  we  reached  the  island,  hav- 
ing covered  the  distance  at  an  average  speed  of  ten 
kilometres  an  hour. 

It  was  not  long  before  we  came  upon  fresh  sledge 
tracks,  and  following  them  down  to  the  coast,  drove 
across  a  little  headland  without  sighting  any  human 
being.  Then  suddenly  we  almost  fell  down  a  steep 
incline,  and  dashed  full  into  a  cluster  of  snow  huts 
half  buried  in  loose  snow.  Wooden  frames  stood  up 
here  and  there,  with  skins  and  inner  garments  hung 
out  to  dry  or  bleach;  two  fat  dogs  came  out  and  started 
barking— here  evidently  was  the  place  we  had  been 
seeking,  Miteq  ran  up  to  the  window  and  shouted 
down  to  those  within:  "Here  we  are;  here  we  are 
at  last,"  a  piece  of  mischievous  fun  that  brought  out 
the  inmates  at  once.  There  was  a  confusion  of  cries 
and  shouting,  as  of  women  in  a  flutter,  a  sound  of 
rapid  steps  along  the  passage  way,  and  out  among  us 
tumbled— a  black  girl.  A  little  negro  lady  as  black 
as  one  could  wish  to  see* 

This  was  perhaps  the  most  surprising  encounter  we 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       47 

have  experienced  up  to  date.  I  noticed  also,  that 
the  sight  was  almost  too  much  for  Miteq,  who  started 
back  and  stood  with  wide  eyes  fixed  in  wonder  on 
the  unexpected  figure.  Here  we  were  come  all  the 
way  from  Greenland  to  seek  out  other  peoples  of 
the  farthest  northern  lands;  and  all  of  a  sudden  we 
found  ourselves  face  to  face  with  a  child  of  the  tropic 
South;  a  creature  of  the  sun  leaping  up  out  of  the 
snow! 

The  girl  herself  was  no  less  astonished  at  our 
appearance.  She  retreated  hastily  into  the  hut,  and 
we  stood  there  waiting  in  eager  anticipation  until 
steps  once  more  were  heard  within,  and  the  girl 
reappeared,  this  time  in  company  with  three  older 
women  of  normal  Eskimo  type. 

It  is  often  almost  a  pity  to  have  mysteries  ex- 
plained; the  whole  thisg  seems  so  natural  once  you 
know  how  it  came  about,  that  there  is  nothing 
marveHotis  or  tariffing  afcont  it  afterward..  The 
oldest  of  the  wotneii  carae  tip  <te  tis  at  -om®  aad 
asfced  who  we  were.  When  we  had  mtoodte^a  our- 
selves as  lucidly  as  possible,  she  explained  thai  her 
husband  and  those  of  the  other  two  women  were 
out  hunting,  but  should  be  back  in  the  course  of 
the  day.  She  named  her  companions  one  by  one, 
and  when  it  came  to  the  dark  young  lady's  turn, 
informed  us  that  this  was  her  daughter  by  a  stranger, 
a  man  who  had  come  to  them  from  a  land  where  it 
was  always  summer.  A  remarkable  man,  she  ex- 
plained, one  who  never  went  but  hunting  himself, 
but  devoted  his  life  to  the  task  of  preparing  rare 
feasts  and  luscious  dishes  tor  his  fellows.  He  iad 


48  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

come  to  their  country  on  a  great  ship,  and  had  spent 
the  winter  in  their  huts. 

It  was  all  simple  enough  after  this.  The  girl's 
father  had  been  a  negro  cook  on  one  of  the  American 
whalers. 

The  dwelling  place  consisted  of  three  large  roomy 
huts,  built  together.  The  party  here  had  spent  the 
summer  and  autumn  inland,  caribou  hunting,  and 
had  moved  out  in  the  course  of  the  winter  for  the 
walrus  hunting  on  the  edge  of  the  ice.  They  had 
done  very  well,  it  appeared,  at  any  rate,  there  was 
an  abundance  of  food  of  all  kinds.  A  series  of  store- 
chambers  had  been  built  side  by  side  with  the  living 
rooms,  so  that  by  shifting  a  block  of  snow,  one  gained 
access  to  the  larder,  the  different  kinds  of  meat  being 
stored  in  separate  compartments;  seal  meat,  caribou 
meat  and  salmon,  with  piles  of  walrus  meat  in  a 
shed  at  one  side  of  the  passage.  We  were  at  once 
invited  to  take  as  much  meat  as  we  liked  for  our  dogs, 
and  while  we  were  feeding  them,  three  pots  were  set 
on  to  boil,  that  we  might  have  our  choice  of  meats 
when  it  came  to  our  turn. 

In  the  course  of  the  afternoon,  the  master  of  the 
house  returned.  His  name  was  Inugpasugssuk,  and 
he  belonged  to  the  Netsilik,  as  did  the  rest  of  the 
party.  It  was  not  long  before  we  became  firm 
friends.  This  ready  frankness  and  lack  of  all  reserve 
on  the  part  of  the  natives  was  a  great  asset  to  me  in 
my  work.  Where  else  in  the  world  could  one  come 
tumbling  into  people's  houses  without  ceremony, 
merely  saying  that  one  comes  from  a  country  they 
do  not  know,  and  forthwith  begin  to  question  them 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       49 

on  matters  which  are  generally  held  sacred — all 
without  the  least  offence? 

We  were  now  but  one  dayfs  journey  from  Chester- 
field Inlet,  and  as  there  seemed  to  be  excellent  walrus 
hunting  in  the  neighborhood,  I  decided  to  stay  here 
for  a  while.  Inugpasugssuk  was  too  valuable  a  find 
to  be  dropped  all  at  once.  I  stayed  eight  days,  in 
the  course  of  which  time  we  went  all  through  the  folk- 
lore and  legends  of  the  people,  without  the  slightest 
sign  of  impatience  on  his  part.  After  we  had  done 
a  hundred  of  the  stories,  we  agreed  that  he  should 
go  with  us  to  Chesterfield,  where  it  would  be  more 
convenient  to  write  them  down. 

We  had  arrived  at  Depot  Island  nearly  out  of 
provisions,  as  our  arrangements  had  been  made  to 
include  re-stocking  at  Chesterfield,  and  we  had  not 
reckoned  oa  making  any  stay  here.  As  it  was, 
however,  these  good  folk,  whom  we  had  never  seen 
before*  pjxwicfed  tas  with  food  for  the  whole  party — 
five  m&n  and  tw&af^Mbar  dpgsr— %m*gbw&  cmr 
stay,  aad  seemed  to  regaj*l  it  qtdte  3s  a  siatfer  of 
course. 

We  were  all  busily  occupied  meantime*  Araaraltik 
was  making  new  spring  jackets  for  us,  as  the  hard  aad 
heavy  winter  furs  would  soon  be  too  hot.  Miteq 
was  out  walrus  hunting  all  day  with  the  men  of  the 
place.  At  last,  when  he  had  got  two  walrus  on  his 
own  account,  I  decided  to  set  out  for  Chesterfield. 
Two  sledges  belonging  to  the  party  here  helped  us 
to  carry  our  loads  of  meat,  and  oap.  the  22nd  of  April, 
a  calm,  warm  sunny  day,  we  started  for  the  white 
men's  settlement  of  which  we  had  heard  so 


5o  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

A  couple  of  hours'  journey  away,  however,  we  were 
overtaken  by  a  blizzard  which  came  down  on  us 
so  suddenly  that  we  lost  sight  of  the  others.  It  was 
hopeless  to  go  searching  about  in  the  dark  and  the 
driving  snow;  we  camped,  therefore,  in  three  separate 
parties,  none  knowing  where  the  others  were,  and 
waited  for  the  morning. 

Waking  up  in  fine  weather  after  camping  hurriedly 
in  a  blizzard  the  night  before  is  always  full  of  sur- 
prises. One  sees  now,  from  the  tangled  tracks,  how 
the  sledges  had  been  driven  this  way  and  that  in 
the  darkness  and  the  gale,  seeming  to  pick  out  the 
very  worst  spots.  The  last  part  of  our  journey  on 
the  previous  night  had  led  us  in  among  a  host  of 
little  reefs  and  islets,  pressure  ridges  and  fissures, 
till  we  brought  up  finally  on  a  low  point  of  land 
where  a  snowdrift  offered  the  site  and  material  for 
a  hut. 

Now,  all  was  bathed  in  the  morning  sunlight,  and 
the  fresh  April  weather  gave  a  brightness  to  every 
hummock  and  hill;  beyond  the  farthest  flat  point  to 
the  south  lay  the  settlement  we  had  failed  to  reach. 
Without  waiting  for  the  other  sledges,  we  started  off, 
making  our  way  slowly  across  the  bay,  which  was 
deep  under  snow.  Just  as  we  were  coming  up  on 
to  the  land  again,  we  found  ourselves  driving  in  our 
own  tracks  of  yesterday,  and  realized  to  our  surprise 
that  we  had  been  almost  in  to  Chesterfield  the  night 
before,  but  with  the  wind  lashing  our  faces  had 
turned  off  a  little  from  the  straight  and  come  round 
in  a  wide  curve. 

The  ascent  from  the  bay  was  thick  with  sledge 


as 

fc  'S 

H  t3 

a  § 


a  § 


s  1i 

H    3-tf 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       51 

tracks,  and  before  long  the  dogs  got  scent  of  human 
dwellings.  We  raced  at  full  speed  over  some  low 
hills,  and  at  last,  reaching  the  main  ridge  of  the 
peninsula,  came  in  sight  of  the  little  group  of  houses 
that  form  the  colony.  We  opened  our  eyes  at  the 
sight;  for  after  our  long  sojourn  among  little  snow 
hut  encampments,  this  was  a  city  by  comparison. 
On  the  extreme  east  lay  some  neat  white-painted 
houses  belonging  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
forming  a  kind  of  suburb  in  themselves.  Then  a 
roughly  built  warehouse — a  perfect  skyscraper  it 
seemed  to  us — and  then  a  yellow  wooden  edifice 
entirely  surrounded  by  snow  huts,  the  open  en- 
trances to  which  gave  the  whole  the  appearance  of 
a  rabbit  warren.  Now  too  we  perceived  the  bar- 
racks of  the  Canadian  Mounted  Police,  in  lordly 
isolation  on  the  farther  side  of  a  creek  which  divided 
the  town  into  twb  parts. 

Btit  t&e  otefr  tMsig  wliicli  most  of  all  impressed  us 
as  civiHzed  and  city-See  was  a  wooden  ckttrch  on  the 
shore  of  &  tiny  lake.  It  faad  a  slender  tower  rising 
above  the  rest  of  the  buildings,  and  just  as  we  came 
out  on  to  the  lake,  the  deep,  full  tones  of  a  bell  rang 
out,  as  if  to  greet  us.  The  sound  of  a  church  bell 
made  a  deep  impression  on  our  minds ;  it  was  as  if  we 
had  passed  a  thousand  years  in  heathen  wilds,  and 
now  returned  to  Christendom  and  peace. 

The  bell  was  ringing  for  service;  and  there  was 
something  affecting  in  the  mere  sight  of  so  many 
people  moving,  in  the  old  accustomed  way  of  a  con- 
gregation, slowly,  all  towards  the  open  doors. 

We  drove  up  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's 


52  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

offices  and  were  hospitably  received  by  the  Station 
manager,  Mr.  Phillips.  He  very  kindly  invited  me 
to  stay  with  him,  but  this  I  declined,  as  it  was 
essential  that  I  should  live  as  much  as  possible  among 
the  natives  in  their  own  free  and  easy  fashion.  He 
then  at  once  placed  an  empty  house  at  our  disposal; 
we  moved  in  at  once,  and  revelled  in  the  unaccus- 
tomed luxury  of  ample  room,  coal  fires  and  comfort 
generally.  Anarulunguaq  kept  house  for  us,  and  we 
decided  to  live  Eskimo  fashion  on  the  stores  of  walrus 
meat  we  had  brought  down  with  us. 

At  the  Mounted  Police  barracks  I  found  only  a  Cor- 
poral at  home;  Sergeant  Douglas,  who  was  in  charge 
of  the  station  was  away  up  country  investigating  a 
dual  murder  committed  by  an  Eskimo.  The  last  re- 
ports from  his  patrol  stated  that  travelling  was  most 
difficult;  deep  snow,  shortage  of  food  for  the  dogs, 
and  starving  Eskimos  all  round.  This  was  poor  en- 
couragement to  us,  who  were  to  follow  the  same  route, 
and  farther  up  country. 

The  little  church  whose  bell  had  greeted  us  so 
prettily  on  our  arrival  belonged  to  a  Roman  Catholic 
Mission,  under  Father  Turquetil  and  two  younger 
priests,  all  Jesuits,  highly  cultured  and  most  interest- 
ing to  talk  to.  They  opened  their  house  to  us  with 
the  greatest  hospitality,  and  I  spent  many  an  in- 
structive evening  in  their  company.  Father  Turque- 
til, a  learned  man  who  spoke  Eskimo  and  Latin  with 
equal  fluency,  had  lived  in  these  parts  for  a  genera- 
tion, and  was  greatly  looked  up  to  by  the  natives. 
Converts  were  not  numerous,  but  the  church  was 
full  every  Sunday. 


FINGER-TIPS  OF  CIVILIZATION       53 

On  the  3rd  of  May  we  said  goodbye  and  drove  our 
separate  ways. 

The  mild  weather  brought  with  it  all  the  ad- 
vantages we  had  been  waiting  for  so  long.  The 
snow  was  moist  underfoot,  and  the  stout  iron  runners 
made  as  easy  going  as  the  troublesome  ice  shoeing, 
We  had  already  decided  to  follow  the  narrow  gut 
of  Chesterfield  Inlet  right  up  to  Baker  Lake,  instead 
of  trying  short  cuts  over  hilly  and  unknown  country. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  May  we  halted  to 
camp;  the  weather  fine  and  calm,  temperature  a 
little  over  i  degree.  For  the  first  time  during  the 
whole  trip  we  could  pitch  a  tent  and  call  it  summer. 

All  about  we  found  puddles  of  dean  fresh  water 
from  the  newly  melted  snow;  it  was  pleasant  to 
kneel  and  drink  from  these.  Along  the  slopes,  the 
snow  had  vanished  already,  and  we  could  lie  down 
on  a  Imtjrimts  carpet  of  heather  and  herbage,  eat- 
ing ctimfyerms  aad^wfeor^eb^ries  by  the  handful, 
:dmttering  ptaiBiigsa  twm%$@&  about  our 


But  we  had  now  to  mafee  tfa0  3®fcsl  of  tfee  little 
snow  that  remained  for  travelling,  and  pushed  oa 
therefore  with  all  speed,  and  on  the  I2th  of  May  we 
arrived  at  the  little  island  in  Baker  Lake  where 
Birket-Smith  had  been  waiting  impatiently  for  our 
coming.  This  is  the  most  westerly  outpost  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  and  the  centre  of  trade  for 
all  the  Barren  Grounds  Eskimos  right  out  to  Hikolig- 
juaq,  the  Kasan  River  and  the  region  of  the  Back 
or  Great  Fish  River. 

We  were  at  once  greeted  with  the  good  news  that 


54  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

there  was  excellent  going  on  the  overland  route  as 
long  as  one  travelled  by  night.  And,  another  point 
of  equal  importance  to  our  progress;  the  caribou  were 
moving  up  from  the  south.  This  was  as  encouraging 
as  could  be  wished. 

The  principal  difficulty  we  had  to  face  was  that  of 
getting  into  touch  with  our  fellow  men  at  all.  The 
only  definite  information  we  could  gather  on  this 
head  was,  that  if  we  followed  the  course  of  the  Great 
Kazan  River  far  enough  up,  we  should  meet  with  two 
inland  tribes.  The  nearer  of  the  two  was  called  the 
Harvaqtormiut,  or  the  people  of  the  eddies;  farther 
inland,  near  Lake  Yathkied,  or  Hikoligjuaq,  were  the 
Padlermiut,  or  Willow-folk.  Where  the  various 
families  were  now  to  be  found,  no  one  could  say; 
they  followed  the  moving  caribou  up  in  the  interior. 

We  saw  no  reason  to  spend  any  time  among  the 
people  in  the  neighborhood  of  Baker  Lake,  as  these, 
the  Qaernermiut,  had  for  a  long  time  past  had  deal- 
ings with  the  whalers,  and  much  of  their  original 
character  had  been  lost.  We  therefore  transferred 
our  attention  without  delay  to  the  unknown  interior. 


I 

ii 

l! 


1 


CHAPTER  V 

A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH 

way  lay  through,  a  flat,  wild,  desolate  ootm- 
try,  with  little  to  guide  the  stranger.  Although 
it  was  the  latter  part  of  May,  the  snow  still  covered 
such  landmarks  as  there  were,  even  the  rivers  were 
indistinguishable  from  the  plains.  All  was  white 
save  the  southern  slopes  of  the  hills  where  the  sun 
had  thawed  a  few  bare  patches  of  earth.  Hour  after 
hour  we  travelled  on,  never  seeming  to  get  any 
farther,  and  with  an  uncomfortable  feeling  all  the 
time  that  we  might  be  going  wrong;  as  if  the-  sense 
of  c^ee^c^w^eatfaidt.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it 
Ottered  little  wMdb^rectioa  we  took,  for  from  the 
d&y  we  left  the  coast  .we  had  realised  that  BO  iafocnfta- 
tion  could  be  gleaned  even  from  a&&  setttemeiit  as 
to  the  position  of  another,  since  the  various  parties 
were  always  on  the  move,  taking  up  their  quarters 
here  or  there  according  to  the  movements  of  the  game. 
On  the  i8th  of  May  we  camped  on  the  top  of  a 
ridge  of  hills,  looking-  out  over  a  wide  landscape  which, 
while  still  under  snow,  resembles  in  many  ways  the 
inland  ice  of  Greenland,  save  that  moraine  takes 
the  place  of  ice.  Isolated  masses  of  rock  rising  up 
here  and  there  amid  the  iimumerable  lakes  and 
streams,  remind  one  of  the  Greenland  nunataks: 

55 


56  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

mountain  tops  thrust  up  above  the  submerging  flood 
of  ice.  There  are  ridges  and  ranges  of  hills  here, 
too,  as  in  Greenland,  at  intervals  on  the  way,  until 
one  reaches  farther  into  the  interior,  when  all  is 
merged  into  one  vast  level  plain. 

Standing  outside  the  tent  one  feels  the  country 
like  a  desert.  There  is  not  a  sign  of  life;  all  game 
seems  to  be  extinct  at  this  season  of  the  year.  No 
white  man  ever  comes  here;  unless  some  crime  or 
other  calls  for  the  presence  of  the  ubiquitous  Mounted 
Police.  Only  a  few  days  back  we  had  heard  about 
Sergeant  Douglas'  last  excursion  in  quest  of  a  local 
murderer.  He  had  been  up  in  the  coldest  season, 
when  the  prevalent  north-west  winds  give  a  degree 
of  cold  that  few  places  in  the  world  can  surpass. 
Everywhere  he  had  met  with  starving  natives,  mov- 
ing vainly  from  place  to  place  in  search  of  food. 
The  caribou  had  disappeared,  the  salmon  had  left 
the  rivers  and  lakes,  and  all  their  hunting  failed  to 
yield  the  barest  means  of  livelihood.  The  police 
patrol  itself  had  found  the  greatest  difficulty  in 
getting  through  to  the  coast,  the  dogs  being  ready 
to  drop  with  weakness  and  fatigue;  and  Douglas 
himself  was  known  as  a  clever  and  experienced 
traveller. 

Toward  evening  the  desolate  landscape  was  tinged 
with  beauty.  Light  and  shade  stood  out  sharply 
contrasted;  but  as  the  sun  went  down,  and  all  melted 
and  merged  into  white  billows  of  snow,  one  was  again 
reminded  of  the  inland  ice.  Following  Chesterfield 
Inlet,  and  afterwards  Baker  Lake,  we  had  not  this 
impression  of  a  vast  expanse,  but  here,  with  nothing 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH       57 

but  land  to  see  on  every  side,  we  began  to  realize 
that  these  are  indeed  the  Barren  Grounds. 

Geologically  speaking,  these  are  the  ruins  of  what 
was  once  a  mountainous  country,  the  mountains 
having  been  gradually  worn  away  in  the  course  of 
-millions  of  years.  The  disintegrating  force  of  alter- 
nating heat  and  cold,  action  of  water,  and  the  rest, 
have  done  their  work.  In  the  glacial  period,  a  great 
ice-cap,  the  Keewatin  Glacier,  covered  all  the  land. 
The  ice  has  rounded  off  all  projecting  summits,  worn 
away  all  softer  parts,  and  strewn  boulders,  great  and 
small,  over  the  whole,  until  we  have  now  a  tract  of 
primitive  rock,  buried  beneath  a  thick  layer  of 
moraine  deposit;  day  sand  and  gravel,  with  only  a 
solitary  peak,  or  its  worn  remains,  jutting  up  here 
and  there, 

On  tfee  I9tfa  of  May,  we  passed  the  first  settlement 
of  the  Harvaqtomitit,  the  People  of  the  Eddies.  We 
have  decided,  however,  to  t&e  the  gen&rai  term, 
Caribou  Eskimos,  for  all  thesa  inland  tribes,  the 
caribou  being  the  principal  factor  in  their  Hfe* 

We  had  made  excellent  going  up  to  now,  the  snow 
firm  as  a  dancing  floor  under  the  night's  frost.  Be- 
ing, however,  four  men  to  one  sledge,  and  that  with 
a  heavy  load,  I  preferred  to  go  ahead  on  ski.  We 
had  just  topped  a  rise  when  to  our  surprise  we  dis- 
covered a  village  down  by  the  shore  of  a  tiny  lake, 
with  people  running  in  and  out  of  their  snow  huts 
in  confusion;  alarmed,  it  would  seem,  at  our  appear- 
ance on  the  scene.  When  we  reached  the  huts,  all 
the  women  and  children  had  disappeared,  and  only 


58  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

two  men  remained  outside,  seated  on  a  block  of 
snow,  back  to  back,  ready  to  receive  us.  Evidently, 
they  were  not  sure  we  came  as  friends.  Our  whole 
equipment,  with  the  Greenland  sledges  and  dogs, 
would  be  strange  to  them;  they  might  take  us  per- 
haps for  a  party  of  the  Kitdlinermiut  from  the  shores 
of  the  Arctic,  or  Indians  from  somewhere  up  country. 
Both  these  they  regarded  as  enemies,  the  Indians 
especially,  as  we  learned  later  on,  being  looked  upon 
with  dread.  For  centuries  past,  the  Eskimos  and 
the  Indians  had  been  at  feud,  and  the  atrocities  on 
both  sides  were  not  yet  forgotten. 

While  at  Baker  Lake,  I  had  met  a  man  from  the 
shores  of  the  Arctic,  who  informed  me  that  there 
was  a  special  form  of  greeting  used  when  encounter- 
ing any  of  the  inland  Eskimo.  The  natives  from 
the  coast  often  went  all  the  way  down  from  the  region 
of  the  North-west  Passage  to  the  timber  belt,  in 
quest  of  wood.  And  it  was  their  custom  on  meeting 
the  inland  folk,  to  say  at  once:  Ilorrainik  tikitunga, 
which  means:  "I  come  from  the  right  side"  i.e., 
from  the  proper,  friendly,  quarter. 

I  shouted  the  conventional  greeting  accordingly, 
at  the  top  of  my  voice;  and  hardly  were  the  words 
out  of  nay  mouth  when  the  two  men  sprang  up  with 
loud  cries  and  came  running  towards  us,  while  the 
remainder  of  the  party  came  tumbling  out  from  then- 
huts. 

We  now  learned  that  the  place  was  called  Tugdliu- 
vartaliik,  the  Lake  of  Many  Loons,  They  had  had 
a  very  severe  winter,  and  numbers  of  men  and  dogs 
aEke  had  died  of  hunger  in  various  parts.  They 


PUKERDLUK,  CHIEF  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  EDDIES 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH       59 

had  camped  throughout  the  winter  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  Kazan  River,  and  had  now  moved  west 
to  meet  the  caribou  coming  from  the  south.  Two 
sledges  had  been  sent  out  to  a  neighboring  settle- 
ment on  the  Kazan  River,  at  Nahigtartorvik,  or 
The  Outlook;  from  here  the  caribou  could  be  seen 
as  soon  as  their  advance  guard  appeared.  This  being 
duly  reported  to  the  camp,  the  whole  party  would 
move  off  and  shift  their  quarters  to  fresh  hunting 
grounds. 

Despite  the  fact  that  we  were  but  a  few  days  jour- 
ney from  the  trading  station  at  Baker  Lake,  we  found 
that  some  of  the  women  and  children  here  had  never 
seen  white  men  before.  Our  cameras  were  regarded 
with  the  greatest  astonishment,  and  a  peep  through 
the  finder  seemed  a  marvel  beyond  words.  The 
people  here  were  anxious  to  trade,  and  brought 
along  their  stores  of  fox  skins,  asking  in  return,  how- 
ever, our  most  Indispensable  pots  and  pans.  When 
we  dedmed  to  barter  these,  aM  explained  that  we 
did  not  care  for  fox  skins,  but  Would  rather  have old 
clothes,  hunting  implements  aad  other  curios  of 
ethnographical  interest,  it  was  plain  to  see  that  we 
had  fallen  in  their  estimation. 

We  halted  for  a  few  hours,  made  some  tea  aad 
some  pancakes,  and  on  this  simple  menu  stood 
treat  to  the  whole  village.  While  the  impromptu 
banquet  was  in  progress,  in  came  the  two  sledges 
which  had  been  sent  out  reconnoitring.  Long  before 
they  reached  us  we  could  hear  the  men  shouting: 
"The  caribou  are  coming;  the  caribou  are  coming "; 
and  in  a  moment  the  entire  assembly  was  in  a  tur- 


6o  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

moil  of  extravagant  rejoicing.  Here  was  the  end  of 
winter;  the  caribou  were  come,  and  with  them  sum- 
mer and  its  abundance.  And  one  can  imagine  what 
this  means  to  people  who  have  struggled  through  a 
whole  long  winter  in  the  merciless  cold  of  their  snow 
huts,  with  barely  food  enough  to  keep  them  alive. 

On  leaving  Baker  Lake,  we  had  laid  our  course 
over  land  in  a  curve  to  the  south-east  of  the  Kazan 
River,  having  learned  that  it  was  inadvisable  to 
follow  the  lower  reaches  of  the  river  itself.  Now, 
however,  we  had  to  move  down  to  the  river  in  order 
to  get  into  touch  with  the  natives.  One  of  the  young 
men  who  had  just  come  in  offered  to  go  with  us  to 
the  next  village  as  a  guide,  and  with  his  aid,  we  soon 
reached  the  river,  which  was  fairly  broad  at  this 
point.  We  crossed  over  to  the  spot  where  the  village 
had  been,  but  found  the  place  deserted;  the  party 
had  gone  off  after  the  caribou,  We  then  sent  our 
guide  back  at  once,  and  went  farther  up  country, 
in  the  hope  that  we  might  again  manage  unaided 
to  get  into  touch  with  people  here. 

The  Barren  Grounds  were  now  so  thick  with  game 
that  it  was  hard  to  make  any  progress  by  sledge 
with  dogs  used  to  hunting.  Herds  of  caribou  came 
trotting  by,  great  and  small,  one  after  another, 
numbering  from  fifteen  or  twenty-five  to  fifty,  some- 
times over  two  hundred  head* 

Although  it  was  late  in  June,  we  again  had  win- 
ter for  a  spell.  The  snow  had  frozen  hard  again, 
caking  over  everything,  and  we  cotild  make  better 
going  now.  We  followed  the  winding  river  through 
the  low-lying  country,  where  the  stream  itself  re- 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH       61 

peatedly  spread  out  to  great  width.  Here  and  there 
the  water  had  begun  to  eat  its  way  up  through  the 
ice,  and  we  had  to  be  very  careful  in.  the  neighbor- 
hood of  these  eddies.  Towards  evening  we  came 
upon  a  deserted  snow  hut,  a  sure  sign  that  there  were 
people  not  very  far  away.  But  where?  There  was 
a  confusion  of  sledge  tracks  to  choose  from,  but 
most  of  them  pointed  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that 
we  were  inclined  to  take. 

We  had  left  the  river  now  and  had  reached  a  lake 
of  such  extent  that  it  could  hardly  be  any  but  Hiko- 
ligjuaq  itself  where  the  Padlermiut  were  supposed 
to  have  their  summer  camp.  We  had  followed  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  river,  as  advised,  and  now  at 
last  a  man  appeared  on  the  summit  of  a  hill,  watching 
us  intently.  We  stopped  and  waved  to  him;  he  an- 
swered by  stretching  out  both  arms,  a  sign  which 
said  he  is  a  friend.  We  drove  forward  accordingly, 
and  soon  arrived  at  his  catojx 

Here  at  last  we  found  we  &a4  reached  our  goal. 
We  were  among  the  Padleranat,  the  W2k>w-Fofe^ 
the  head  tribe  of  the  Caribou  Eskimos. 

It  was  a  tiny  camp,  consisting  for  the  moment  erf 
but  three  tents.  Igjugarjuk,  the  head  of  the  party, 
unlike  the  majority  of  his  fellows,  greeted  us  with 
fearless  cordiality,  and  his  jovial  smile  won  our  hearts 
at  the  outset.  I  knew  a  good  deal  about  him, 
already,  from  his  neighbors  on  the  Kazan  River, 
and  had  heard  the  story  of  how  he  procured  his  first 
wife.  It  was,  to  say  the  least,  somewhat  drastic, 
even  by  Eskimo  standards,  He  had  been  refused 
permission  to  marry  her,  and  therefore  went  out  one 


62  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

day  with  his  brother  and  lay  in  wait  at  the  entrance 
to  the  lady's  hut,  and  from  there  shot  down  her 
father,  mother,  brothers  and  sisters — seven  or  -eight 
persons  in  all,  until  only  his  chosen  herself  was  left. 
I  was  somewhat  surprised  then,  to  find  a  man  of 
his  temper  and  antecedents  introducing  himself  im- 
mediately on  our  arrival  as  the  accredited  repre- 
sentative of  law  and  order.  He  handed  me  a  docu- 
ment with  the  seal  of  the  Canadian  Government, 
dated  from  his  camp  in  April,  1921,  when  the  police 
had  visited  there  in  search  .of  a  criminal.  Briefly, 
it  set  forth  that  the  bearer,  one  Ed-joa-juk  (Igjugar- 
juk)  of  She-ko-lig-jou-ak,  was  by  the  undersigned, 
Albert  E.  Reames,  His  Majesty's  Justice  of  the 
Peace  in  and  for  the  North-west  Territory,  hereby 
appointed  Special  Constable  in  and  for  the  said 
territory  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  to  justice  one 
Quaugvak,  of  the  Padlermiut,  the  said  Quaugvak 
being  accused  of  two  murders  .  ,  . 

I  read  through  the  document  with  due  solemnity, 
and  handed  him  in  return  a  bit  of  old  newspaper 
from  a  parcel.  He  took  it  with  great  dignity,  and 
studied  it  with  the  same  attention  I  had  given  to  his. 
And  from  that  moment  we  were  friends,  with  perfect 
confidence  in  each  other. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Igjujarjuk  was  no  humbug; 
and  when  I  run  over  in  my  mind  the  many  different 
characters  I  met  with  on  that  long  journey  from 
Greenland  to  Siberia,  he  takes  a  prominent  place. 
He  was  clever,  independent,  intelligent,  and  a  man 
of  great  authority  among  his  fellows. 

He  invited  us  at  once  into  one  of  his  tents;  and  we 


IGJUGARJUK,  CHIEF  OF  THE  WILLOW  FOLK  AND  A  NOTABLE  WIZARD 

He  fell  in  love  with  our  Greenland  dress  at  first  sight,  and  we  had  to  present  him  with  a  costume.    He 
would  never  consent  to  be  photographed  in  his  own  caribou-skin  dress. 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH       63 

found  that  as  befitted  Ms  position,  he  had  two  wives. 
The  elder  of  the  two,  Kivkarjuk,  the  cause  of  the 
massacre  above  mentioned,  was  now  dethroned  by 
a  younger  beauty  named  Atqaralaq,  and  it  was  to 
her  tent  we  were  now  invited. 

To  my  great  relief,  the  famine  we  had  expected  to 
encounter  was  already  a  thing  of  the  past.  In  front 
of  the  tents  lay  a  pile  of  dead  caribou,  so  many  indeed 
that  it  was  difficult  to  count  them.  A  month  before, 
the  people  here  had  been  on  the  verge  of  starvation, 
but  now  all  was  changed.  Igjugarjuk  at  once  gave 
orders  for  an  extravagant  banquet  in  our  honor, 
and  two  large  caribou  were  put  on  to  boil  in  huge 
zinc  cauldrons. 

I  had  expected  to  find  these  people  living  in  quite 
a  primitive  state,  and  in  this  respect,  was  disappointed 
beyond  measure.  What  we  did  find  was  the  worst 
kind  of  tinpot  store  and  canned  provision  culture; 
a  product  of  trading  expeditions  to  the  distant  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company's  Sfcaticms.  And  when  a  power- 
ful gramophone  struck  up,  and  Caruso's  mighty  voice 
rang  out  from  Igjugarjuk's  tent,  I  felt  that  we  had 
missed  our  market,  as  far  as  the  study  of  these  people 
was  concerned.  We  were  about  a  hundred  years  too 
late.  Save  for  their  appearance,  which  was  of  pro- 
nounced Eskimo  type,  they  were  more  like  Indians 
than  Eskimos.  Their  tents  were  of  the  pointed 
Indian  pattern,  made  of  caribou  skins  with  a  smoke 
hole  at  the  top,  and  in  each,  on  the  left  hand  side, 
burned  the  Uvkak,  or  tent  fire.  All  the  women 
wore  colored  shawls  over  their  skin  dresses,  just 
as  the  Indian  women  do;  and  to  my  astonishment 


64  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  A  MERICA 

I  found  that  they  wore  watches,  hung  round  their 
necks.  These  ornaments,  however,  were  divided  up 
among  the  party,  some  wearing  the  case,  others 
going  shares  in  the  works. 

The  only  unadulterated  Eskimo  element  we  had 
to  work  on  was  the  language;  and  to  the  satisfaction 
of  both  parties,  we  found  that  our  Greenland  tongue 
was  understood  immediately,  though  there  was  natur- 
ally some  difference  in  pronunciation  and  idiom. 
Igjugarjuk,  who  was  not  beyond  flattering  a  guest, 
declared  that  I  was  the  first  white  man  he  had  ever 
seen  who  was  also  an  Eskimo. 

The  banquet  took  some  time  to  prepare,  and  while 
it  was  being  got  ready,  we  went  out  to  feed  our  dogs. 
This  gave  rise  to  astonishment  not  unmixed  with 
horror  among  our  hosts.  We  had  still  some  of  the 
walrus  meat  we  had  brought  up  from  the  coast,  and 
this  we  now  brought  out.  But  no  such  meat  had 
ever  been  seen  on  Lake  Yathkied,  and  strange  meat 
was  strictly  tabu.  Here  was  a  difficulty.  Igjugar- 
juk, however,  whose  travels  had  made  him  somewhat 
a  man  of  the  world,  met  the  situation  with  tact. 
The  young  men  of  his  party,  he  declared,  must  on 
no  account  touch  the  strange  meat,  but  there  would 
be  no  harm  in  our  cutting  it  up  ourselves,  and  feeding 
ouj  own  team  with  it,  as  long  as  we  used  our  own 
knives. 

This  little  episode  showed  that  our  friends  were 
not  so  hopelessly  civilized  after  all.  And  when  one 
of  the  young  men,  named  Pingoaq,  came  up  and 
asked  me  whether  seal  had  horns  like  the  caribou,  I 
forgot  my  disappointment  altogether.  True,  tango 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH       65 

melodies  were  now  welling  forth  from  the  gramo- 
phone, and  the  meat  for  our  dinner  was  seething  in 
genuine  imported  ironmongery;  yet  these  people  were 
plainly  different  in  manners  and  habit  of  mind  from 
the  ordinary  type  of  Eskimo  to  whom  seal  and  walrus 
are  the  main  factor  in  everyday  life.  And  though 
I  was  aware  that  white  men  had  visited  these  regions 
before,  I  knew  also  that  no  one  had  yet  made  a 
thorough  study  of  the  people  here. 

My  meditations  were  interrupted  by  a  shout  in- 
forming the  whole  camp  that  dinner  was  ready. 
I  have  sat  down  to  many  a  barbaric  feast  among 
Eskimos  in  my  time,  but  I  have  never  seen  anything 
to  equal  this.  Only  the  elders  used  knives,  the 
younger  members  of  the  party  simply  tore  the  meat 
from  the  bones  in  the  same  voracious  fashion  which 
we  may  imagine  to  have  been  the  custom  of  our 
earliest  ancestors.  Besides  1&e  two  caribou,  a  num- 
ber of  heads  had  b^^opkse*!,  and  one  was  served 
OH£  to  eadi  meaaBer  ofcte*  party,  *Hie  Jfeads  weare 
an  extra,  aad  we  were  allowed  to  Is6&p  tfoeto  tii 
after,  to  eat  in  our  own  tent,  on  condition  that  none 
of  the  leavings  should  under  any  circumstances  be 
touched  by  women  or  dogs.  The  muzzle  especially 
was  regarded  as  sacred  meat,  which  must  not  be 
defiled. 

Then  came  dessert;  but  this  was  literally  more 
than  we  could  swallow.  It  consisted  of  the  larvae 
of  the  caribou  fly,  great  fat  maggoty  things  served  up 
raw  just  as  they  had  been  picked  out  from  the  sVm 
of  the  beasts  when  shot.  They  lay  squirming  on  a 
platter  like  a  tin  of  huge  gentles,  and  gave  a  nasty 


66  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

little  crunch  under  the  teeth,  like  crushing  a  black- 
beetle. 

Igjugarjuk,  ever  watchful,  noted  my  embarrass- 
ment and  observed  kindly :  "No  one  will  be  offended 
if  you  do  not  understand  our  food;  we  all  have  our 
different  customs/ '  But  he  added  a  trifle  mali- 
ciously: "After  all,  you  have  just  been  eating  cari- 
bou meat;  and  what  are  these  but  a  sort  of  little 
eggs  nourished  on  the  juices  of  that  meat?" 

That  same  afternoon  a  whole  party  of  sledges  came 
in  from  an  island  out  in  the  lake.  It  was  a  remark- 
able procession  to  any  accustomed  to  the  Eskimos 
of  the  coast  and  their  swift  teams.  Here  were  six 
heavily  laden  sledges,  fastened  three  and  three,  each 
section  drawn  by  two  dogs  only,  men  and  women 
aiding.  The  only  person  allowed  to  travel  as  a 
passenger  was  an  old  woman,  a  mummy-like  figure, 
very  aged,  and  generally  looked  up  to  among  the 
Padlermiut  on  account  of  her  knowledge  of  tabu  and 
wisdom  generally.  The  fact  that  she  was  Igjugar- 
juk's  mother-in-law  doubtless  counted  for  something 
as  well. 

By  the  time  we  had  been  there  one  day  we  began 
to  feel  ourselves  at  our  ease  among  these  strange  folk. 
They  treated  us,  apparently,  with  entire  confidence, 
and  endeavored  in  every  way  to  satisfy  our  curiosity, 
In  the  evening,  I  ventured  to  touch  on  my  special 
subject,  and  explained  to  Igjugarjuk,  who  was  famous 
as  an  angakoq  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Barren 
Grounds,  that  I  was  most  anxious  to  learn  something 
of  their  ideas  about  life,  their  religion  and  their  folk- 
lore. But  here  I  was  brought  up  short.  He  an- 


tf 

i 


CO 

K 


I 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH      67 

swered  abruptly  that  he  was  an  ignorant  man,  know- 
ing nothing  of  his  people  and  its  past;  if  any  had  said 
he  was  an  angakoq,  they  lied. 

I  realized  that  I  was  going  too  fast,  and  had  not 
yet  gained  the  confidence  of  my  host  in  full- 
It  was  well  on  in  the  forenoon  before  we  turned  out 
on  the  following  morning,  and  Igjugarjuk  at  once 
volunteered  to  show  me  the  country  round. 

Just  behind  the  camp  was  a  high  range  of  hills, 
and  from  here  one  had  an  excellent  view  of  the  sur- 
roundings. The  lake,  I  found,  was  enormous,  the 
low-lying  coasts  vanishing  away  into  the  horizon; 
it  looked  more  like  the  sea  than  an  inland  water. 
The  Indians  call  it  Lake  Yathkied,  but  the  Eskimo 
name  is  Hikoligjuaq, .  which  means  the  great  water 
with  ice  that  never  melts.  The  name  is  justified 
by  the  fact  that  the  ice  in  the  middle  of  the  lake 
rarely  if  ever  thaws  away  completely. 

Igjugarjuk  drew  for  me  with  surprising  readiness 
a  chart  of  the  lake  and  its  shores,  noting  the  names 
of  all  the  different  settJeaamts.  A  g^oaratioii  or  so 
earlier,  there  had  been  some  600  people  Ifcre;  now 
there  were  hardly  100.  The  introduction  of  firearms 
has  affected  the  movements  of  the  caribou,  and  the 
animals  have  begun  to  avoid  their  old  routes  and 
crossings;  and  when  the  caribou  hunting  fails,  it 
means  famine  to  the  Eskimo. 

The  weather  was  wonderful;  the  brutal  change  on 
change  with  snow,  storm  and  rain  was  gone,  and 
everything  was  at  peace.  The  ice  of  the  lake  had 
melted  close  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  the  heavy 
tumbled  winter  ice  made  way  in  its  midst  for  a 


68  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

smooth  sheet  of  water  with  a  veil  of  warm  mist  above. 
Hosts  of  swimming  birds  had  found  a  playground 
here,  and  laughed  and  chattered  as  new  flocks 
alighted* 

On  land,  one  heard  all  around  the  little  singing 
sound  of  melting  snow;  and  the  daylight  beat  so 
fiercely  on  the  whiteness  of  the  lake  that  one  had  to 
shade  one's  eyes.  Spring  had  come  to  the  Barren 
Grounds,  and  soon  earth  and  flowers  would  realise 
out  of  the  snow. 

Small  herds  of  caribou  on  the  move  approached 
within  easy  distance;  but  today  we  were  friendly 
observers  only,  and  felt  nothing  of  the  hunter's 
quickened  pulse  on  seeing  them  at  close  range.  We 
had  meat  enough  for  the  present. 

Here  again  we  found  the  stone  barriers,  shelters 
and  clumsy  figures  built  to  represent  a  human  form, 
with  a  lump  of  peat  for  a  head — relics  of  the  days 
when  caribou  hunting  was  carried  on  systematically 
by  driving  the  animals  down  to  the  water,  where 
the  kayak  men  were  ready  to  f all  upon  them  with 
the  spear. 

With  the  introduction  of  firearms,  this  method  of 
hunting  has  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  there  will 
soon  be  hardly  a  kayak  left  in  the  Barren  Grounds. 
But  not  mapy  years  ago,  these  inland  people  were 
as  bold  and  skilful  in  the  management  of  a  kayak 
as  any  of  the  natives  on  the  coast. 

Igjugarjuk  and  I  walked  down  towards  the  camp. 
Far  out  on  the  horizon  one  could  see  the  extreme  fringe 
of  the  forest,  but  the  sunlight  was  deceptive,  and  I 
could  hardly  make  out  for  certain  whether  it  were  trees 


A  PEOPLE  BEYOND  THE  TOUCH       69 

or  hill.  I  asked  Igjugarjtik,  and  he  answered  at  once: 
"Napartut"  (the  ones  that  stand  up).  "Not  the 
true  forest  where  we  fetch  wood  for  our  long  sledges; 
that  is  farther  still.  It  is  our  belief  that  the  trees  in 
a  forest  are  living  beings,  only  that  they  cannot 
speak;  and  for  that  reason  we  are  loth  to  spend  the 
night  among  them.  And  those  who  have  at  some 
time  had  to  do  so,  say  that  at  night,  one  can  hear  a 
whispering  and  groaning  among  the  trees,  in  a  lan- 
guage beyond  our  understanding." 

All  the  wild  creatures  were  greeting  the  spring 
in  their  mute,  humble  fashion.  We  could  see  hares 
and  lemmings,  ermine  and  marmot  snuggling  up  in 
the  tall  grass,  with  never  a  thought  of  feeding,  but 
only  enjoying  the  light  and  warmth.  They  were 
dreaming  of  an  eternal  summer,  and  gave  themselves 
up  to  the  delight  of  the  moment,  forgetting  all  their 
mortal  enemies.  Even  the  wolves,  forever  lying  in 
wait  at  other  seasons,  BOW  resdfted  to  thedr  old  den 
and  gave  themselves  tip  to  domestic  bliss.  In  a 
fortnight  there  would  be  a  litter  of  cubs  to  look 
after,  and  the  parents  then  must  take  turns  to  go 
abroad,  for  the  foxes  are  quick  to  scent  out  anything 
in  the  shape  of  young,  even  when  the  sun  is  at  its 
hottest. 

But  by  the  open  waters  of  the  lake  there  was  an 
incessant  chattering  among  the  gulls  and  terns  and 
duck  who  cannot  make  out  why  the  loon  should 
always  utter  such  a  mournful  cry  in  its  happiest 
moments.  There  was  a  blessedness  of  life  and  growth 
here  in  the  spring,  when  the  long-frozen  earth  at 


70  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

last  breathed  warm  and  soft  and  moist,  and  plants 
could  stretch  their  roots  in  the  soil  and  their  branches 
above.  The  sand  by  the  river  bank  gleamed  white; 
showing  clearly  the  footprints  of  the  cranes  as  they 
moved.  All  the  birds  were  talking  at  once,  heedless 
of  what  was  going  on  around  them,  until  a  flock  of 
wild  geese  came  swooping  down,  raising  a  mighty 
commotion  in  the  water  as  they  alighted.  And  in 
face  of  these,  the  smaller  fry  were  silent  and  abashed. 
But  who  can  paint  the  sounds  of  spring?  The  nature 
lover  will  not  attempt  it,  but  will  be  content  to 
breathe  its  fragrance  with  rejoicing. 

The  sun  was  low  on  the  horizon,  the  sky  and  the 
land  all  kround  aglow  with  flaming  color. 

"A  youth  is  dead  and  gone  up  into  the  sky,"  said 
Igjugarjuk.  "And  the  Great  Spirit  colors  earth 
and  sky  with  a  joyful  red  to  receive  his  soul." 


CHAPTER  VI 

NOMAD'S  LIFE  IN  THE  BARREN  GROUNDS 

A  FTER  our  first  introduction  here,  I  allowed  a 
**^  few  days  to  pass  without  pressing  my  actual 
errand,  spending  the  time  in  hunting  and  bartering 
a  little  for  ethnographical  material*  I  realized  that 
it  would  take  some  time  to  gain  the  complete  con- 
fidence of  the  natives  here. 

We  lived  in  our  own  tent.  Among  the  natives  of 
the  coast  we  had  always  preferred  as  far  as  possible 
to  live  in  the  houses  of  tie  natives  as  we  found 
them,  which  gave  us  a  better  chance  of  making  friends 
and  being  regarded  as  ffles&b^s  of  lie  family.  In 
the  present  instance,  however*  we  kept  to  our  own 
quarters,  not  only  because  we  2^,&j|QBe  time,  but 
also  because  our  hosts  here  were?— 4x>  ptrt  tfc  i&ilc8y — 
so  uncleanly  in  their  habits  that  it  would  have  been 
difficult  to  accommodate  ourselves  to  such  conditions. 

The  men  were  leading  a  life  of  idleness  just  at 
present,  but  the  women  were  busy;  we  were  indeed 
astonished  at  the  amount  of  work  which  fell  to  their 
share.  It  was  the  women  who  went  out  gathering 
fuel,  often  from  a  considerable  distance,  which  meant 
heavy  toiling  through  the  swampy  soil;  they  had  also 
to  skin  and  cut  up  all  the  caribou  brought  in,  aqd 

71 


72  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

attend  to  the  fires  and  the  cooking.  Their  hard 
life  had  set  its  mark  upon  them;  it  was  not  always 
age,  but  often  simply  toil,  that  had  wrinkled  their 
faces;  their  eyes  were  often  red  and  rheumy  from 
the  smoke  of  the  fires,  their  hands  coarse  and  filthy, 
with  long,  coarse  nails.  Their  womanly  charm  had 
been  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  domestic  utility;  none 
the  less,  they  were  always  happy  and  contented,  with 
a  ready  laugh  in  return  for  any  jest  or  kindly  word. 
It  suited  our  purpose  well  enough  that  the  men 
were  idle,  as  we  had  thus  more  opportunities  of 
gathering  the  information  we  sought.  In  regard  to 
all  matters  of  everyday  life  they  were  willing  enough 
to  tell  us  all  they  knew.  The  thing  which  most  of 
all  impressed  us  was  their  entire  independence  of  the 
sea.  True,  they  had  had  some  dealings  with  the 
natives  of  the  coast  districts,  a  few  having  made 
journeys  for  purposes  of  trade,  but  many  of  the  men 
here  had  never  even  seen  the  sea.  And  this  also 
accounted  for  the  fact  that  all  sea  meat  was  strictly 
tabu.  Old  men  were  of  opinion  that  their  forefathers 
had  always  lived  inland,  their  sole  means  of  livelihood 
being  based  on  caribou,  salmon,  and  birds.  Nor 
was  there  anything  in  their  material  culture  to  sug- 
gest any  previous  acquaintance  with  the  sea.  During 
the  past  generation,  however,  intercourse  with  neigh- 
boring tribes  had  been  somewhat  more  general,  and 
$here  had  lately  been  some  emigration  from  the 
southern  end  of  Hikoligjuag  down  over  the  great 
lakes  to  the  coast  at  Eskimo  Point.  The  country 
here  was  now  inhabited  by  natives  from  the  inland 
districts.  Nevertheless,  the  natives  with  whom  we 


W    +; 
ffl    is 


9      ° 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  73 

were  living  at  present  seemed  for  the  most  part  to 
regard  it  as  inconceivable  that  anyone  could  prefer 
the  blubbery,  evil-smelling  beasts  of  the  sea  to  the 
splendid  game  that  was  to  be  had  on  land. 

Each  hunter  had  a  modern  rifle,  and  there  was  no 
difficulty  in  catching  foxes  enough  to  pay  for  the 
ammunition  required.  But  they  did  not  seem  to 
realize  that  the  use  of  firearms  was  in  itself  largely 
responsible  for  the  frequent  periods  of  famine.  In 
the  olden  days,  it  is  true,  hunting  was  more  confined 
to  certain  definite  seasons;  but  the  ingenious  methods 
and  implements  of  capture  gave  so  rich  a  yield  as 
to  cover  also  the  dead  seasons  when  no  game  was 
to  be  had,  as  long  as  the  hunting  had  been  fairly 
good  and  sufficient  meat  stored  for  the  winter. 

The  first  essential  was  to  find  a  site  for  the  village 
directly  on  the  route  followed  by  the  caribou  in  their 
migrations,  and  as  these  routes  differed  for  spring 
and  autumn,  the  natives  led  a  somewhat  nomadic 
existence.  They  always  returned,  however,  to  the 
same  spots,  as  extensive  preparations  were  needed. 
Hundreds  of  stone  cairns  had  to  be  erected  covering 
a  range  of  several  kilometres,  and  the  ground  had 
to  be  chosen  so  that  the  caribou  could  be  driven  in 
exactly  the  direction  required.  Hunting  in  the  open 
with  bow  and  arrow  gave  but  a  poor  return;  it  was 
necessary  to  work  up  within  close  range  of  the 
animals,  which  might  be  a  matter  of  days.  And 
one  could  never  reckon  on  bringing  down  more  than 
a  couple  of  head,  even  where  the  herds  were  numer- 
ous. 

The  caribou  were  shy,  and  the  bow  was  only 


74  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

effective  at  short  range.  This  difficulty  was  met 
by  the  following  arrangement: 

Oblong  boulders  were  set  up,  or  stone  cairns  built, 
in  two  lines,  forming  an  avenue.  On  top  of  each 
stone,  or  heap  of  stones,  was  set  a  lump  of  peat  or 
tuft  of  grass,  to  look  like  a  head.  The  avenue  was 
very  broad  at  one  end,  and  so  placed  that  the  caribou 
in  flight,  coming  over  a  hill,  would  find  themselves 
between  the  two  lines  of  figures.  Behind  were 
women  and  children  acting  as  beaters,  waving  gar- 
ments and  shouting  like  wolves.  The  animals  seeing 
themselves,  as  it  appeared,  pursued  by  their  enemies 
from  the  rear  and  hemmed  in  by  a  line  on  either 
side,  had  no  choice  but  to  go  straight  ahead.  As 
they  did  so,  the  space  between  the  lines  narrowed  in, 
like  an  old-fashioned  duck  decoy,  and  at  the  farther 
end,  shelters  were  built  where  the  hunters  lay  in 
wait.  The  caribou  had  now  to  pass  within  dose 
range  of  the  shelters,  and  the  hunters  were  able  to 
take  toll  of  them  on  the  way. 

The  same  system  of  stone  figures  was  employed 
on  the  lakes  and  rivers,  at  spots  where  the  caribou 
were  accustomed  to  take  to  the  water.  In  this 
case,  however,  the  hunters  would  lie  in  wait  on  the 
shore,  ready  to  put  out  in  their  kayaks.  Caribou 
do  not  swim  very  fast,  and  it  was  then  an  easy  matter 
to  overtake  them  and  kill  them  with  the  spears 
which  were  specially  fashioned  for  this  form  of  hunt- 
ing. Given  a  broad  crossing  place  and  numerous 
herds,  great  numbers  could  be  slain  in  this  manner, 
till  the  water  was  choked  with  the  bodies.  Some 
were  also  taken  in  winter,  in  regions  where  they 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  75 

were  to  be  found  at  that  season,  by  a  system  of  pit- 
falls. 

Compared  with  the  caribou,  all  other  forms  of 
game  were  but  of  minor  importance.  Fish  were 
caught  by  spearing  or  with  hook  and  line;  birds, 
hares,  lemmings  and  marmot  taken  in  snares.  The 
feathered  game  was  mostly  hunted  in  the  autumn, 
when  the  birds  are  moulting  and  cannot  rise  easily. 
They  are  then  pursued  on  the  water  in  kayaks,  and 
killed  with  small  harpoons. 

Unfortunately,  the  kayak  is  now  being  superseded 
altogether  by  the  gun,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before 
kayaks  are  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  gun  has  im- 
mediate advantages,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  it 
pays  better  in  the  long  run.  Naturally,  it  is  tempt- 
ing to  employ  a  weapon  which  does  away  with  the 
need  for  elaborate  preparation  of  dummies  and 
shelters,  and  there  is  little  difficulty  on  thinning  out 
the  herds  with  a  long-range  rifle.  But  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  arrow  and  spear  did  their  work 
silently,  and  without  scaring  the  i^est,  so  that  the 
caribou  continued  for  centuries  to  follow  the  same 
routes  from  the  forests  to  the  Barren  Grounds  and 
back  again.  Now,  since  the  introduction  of  fire- 
arms, a  change  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  this 
respect;  the  animals  tend  more  and  more  to  avoid 
the  native  villages,  and  famine  has  frequently  re- 
sulted. In  some  districts,  during  the  last  few  years, 
the  inhabitants  have  been  completely  exterminated 
by  starvation. 

Another  difficulty  which  the  Caribou  Eskimos  have 
to  reckon  with  is  the  fact  that  the  moving  of  the 


76  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

caribou  in  summer  and  autumn  comes  just  at  those 
seasons  when  travelling  is  most  difficult.  The  great 
stretches  of  tundra  are  a  pathless  waste,  and  the 
rivers  are  available  only  as  their  course  lies,  often 
tending  in  the  wrong  direction  for  pursuit  of  the 
caribou.  It  is  not  until  late  in  the  autumn,  when 
the  rivers  and  lakes  are  frozen  over,  and  the  country 
is  covered  with  snow,  that  they  are  able  to  cover 
any  distance;  but  under  these  conditions,  they  are 
splendid  travellers,  skilful  and  untiring.  In  the  days 
before  the  trading  stations  were  established  at  Baker 
Lake  and  Eskimo  Point,  they  would  go  south  as 
far  as  Fort  Churchill,  and  west  to  the  region  of 
Schultz  Lake  and  Aberdeen  Lake,  Here  they  had 
their  meeting  place  at  the  famous  Akilineq,  a  ridge 
of  hills  south  of  the  great  lakes  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Thelon  River.  Here  they  procured  timber 
for  sledges,  kayaks  and  tent  poles,  from  Lake  Tiv- 
salik,  where  great  tree  trunks,  brought  down  by  the 
river  from  far  up  country,  were  washed  ashore.  One 
can  imagine  the  patience  required  in  those  old  days 
for  any  kind  of  wood  work,  when  the  only  tools 
available  were  odd  scraps  of  iron.  Now,  of  course, 
the  saw  is  generally  in  use;  and  sawn  timber  cut  to 
standard  sizes  can  be  obtained  at  the  trading  stations. 
Akilineq  was  the  meeting  place  for  the  natives 
from  Baker  Lake  and  Kazan  River,  who  encountered 
here  the  tribes  from  regions  so  far  distant  as  the 
North-west  Passage,  likewise  coming  up  in  search 
of  timber.  There  was  naturally  a  good  deal  of  trad- 
ing between  the  different  tribes  thus  brought  into 
contact.  The  inland  folk  traded  white  men's  goods 


TATILGAQ,  WHO  DESCRIBED  THE  NATIVE  METHODS  OF  HUNTING 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  77 

brought  from  Churchill,  mostly  knives,  in  exchange 
for  seal  skin  thongs  which  were  in  great  demand. 

There  were  also  forests  by  the  shores  of  these 
lakes,  but  as  the  trees  were  regarded  as  living  beings, 
they  were  rarely  visited.  There  was  a  widely  cur- 
rent tradition,  of  ancient  date,  that  the  tree-folk 
would  not  suffer  any  human  being  among  them  for 
more  than  ten  nights. 

It  says  much  for  the  sfcifl  and  endurance  of  the 
Eskimos  as  travellers  that  these  long  journeys  were 
made  with  very  small  teams,  rarely  more  than  two, 
and  never  more  than  five  dogs,  owing  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  procuring  food  for  the  animals.  Both  men 
and  women,  however,  were  hardy  walkers,  and  would 
cheerfully  harness  themselves  to  the  sledge  and  haul 
as  well  as  any  dog.  Despite  their  small  teams,  these 
natives  here  use,  curiously  enough  the  longest  sledges 
known  to  exist  anywhere;  tea  metres  in  le&gth  by 
only  43  centitnetres  across  are  by  BO  means  utiusttal 


they  were  easy  to  hatil,  and  tfaeir  le&gtii  macte 
steadiness  and  buoyancy  in  soft  loose  s&ow. 

We  were  anxious  to  ascertain  whether  any  stone 
houses  existed  up  inland,  such  as  we  had  found  all 
along  the  coast;  our  informants  here,  however,  were 
positive  that  none  such  had  ever  been  seen.  Houses 
of  this  type  would  also  be  inconsistent  with  their 
mode  of  Hf  e,  which  involved  a  constant  moving  from 
place  to  place  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year. 

The  only  form  of  winter  dwelling  known  to  the 
inland  Eskimo  is  the  snow  hut;  but  having  »o  oil  or 
blubber,  they  are  unable  to  heat  them,  though  the 


78  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

thermometer  in  the  cold  season  may  often  fall  below 
minus  50°.  During  the  long,  dark  evenings,  their 
only  light  is  a  sort  of  primitive  tallow  dip,  made  of 
moss  and  caribou  fat.  So  hardy,  however,  are  these 
people  that  they  declare  they  never  feel  cold  indoors, 
however  severe  the  weather  may  be;  and  their  houses 
are  also  protected  against  the  blizzards  by  being 
simply  smothered  in  snow,  till  they  are  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  drift  in  which  they  are  built. 

Just  outside  the  living  room  proper,  and  connected 
with  it  by  a  passage  is  the  so-called  iga,  or  kitchen, 
built  straight  tip  with  steep  walls,  to  prevent  the 
snow  from  melting.  Here  the  food  is  cooked,  when 
any  fuel  is  available;  this,  however,  is  by  no  means 
an  everyday  occurrence  when  the  whole  country  lies 
deep  in  snow.  For  days  in  succession  they  may 
have  to  make  do  with  frozen  meat,  and  not  even  a 
mouthful  of  hot  soup  to  help  it  down. 

Water  supply  is  ensured  by  building  the  snow  hut 
close  to  the  shore  of  a  lake,  and  a  hole  is  kept  open 
in  the  ice  all  through  the  winter,  a  small  snow  hut 
being  built  above  the  opening  to  keep  it  from  freez- 
ing. Like  all  other  Eskimos  living  exclusively  on 
meat,  these  inland  folk  drink  enormous  quantities 
of  water. 

The  only  serious  difficulty  they  have  to  contend 
with  is  that  they  have  no  means  of  getting  their 
footwear  dried  after  a  long  day's  hunting.  If  they 
have  skins  enough,  the  wet  things  are  thrown  away 
and  replaced  by  new  ones;  failing  this,  the  old  wet 
things  have  to  be  dried  at  night  by  laying  them  next 
to  the  body. 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  79 

In  May,  the  snow  huts  begin  to  melt,  and  tents  are 
then  called  into  requisition,  often  of  great  size  and 
magnificence,  made  on  the  Indian  pattern,  with 
smoke  hole  at  the  top,  and  of  caribou  skin  through- 
out. In  front  of  the  house-wife's  seat  is  the  fireplace, 
and  all  meals  are  cooked  here,  inside  the  tent,  the 
weather  as  a  rule  being  very  windy.  One  might 
imagine  that  the  moving  into  tents  meant  a  period 
of  comfort  and  ease;  this,  however,  is  by  no  means 
the  case.  The  cooking  indoors  precludes  the  use 
of  a  curtain  at  the  entrance,  and  one  has  thus  either 
to  sit  in  a  roaring  draught,  or  in  a  smother  of  smoke 
from  the  fireplace.  Often  we  had  to  jump  up  half 
stifled  and  hurry  outside  to  breathe,  though  the  rest 
of  the  inmates  appeared  to  find  no  discomfort  from 
the  atmosphere. 

This,  roughly,  is  the  ordinary  everyday  life  of  the 
inland  Eskimos,  probably  the  hardiest  people  in  the 
world.  Their  country  is  such  as  to  offer  but  a  bare 
existe&ce  tinder  the  hardest  possible  conditions,  and 
yet  they  think  it  the  best  that  could  be  found. 
What  most  impressed  us  was  the  constant  change 
from  one  to  another  extreme;  either  they  are  on  the 
verge  of  starvation,  or  wallowing  in  a  luxury  of 
abundance  which  renders  them  oblivious  of  hard 
times  past,  and  heedless  of  those  that  await  them 
in  the  next  winter's  dark. 

Igjugarjuk,  who  had  so  vehemently  asserted  that 
he  was  no  magician,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  past 
history  of  his  people,  soon  changed  over  when  he 
found  that  he  could  trust  me,  and  realized  that  I  was 
earnestly  interested  in  such  matters.  And  in  the 


8o  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

end,  I  learned  from  him  a  great  deal  about  aspects  of 
Eskimo  culture  which  were  quite  new  to  me. 

I  found  it  impossible  to  get  a  clear  and  coherent 
account  of  their  religious  beliefs;  as  soon  as  one  began 
to  ask  about  matters  outside  the  sphere  of  tangible 
reality,  the  views  expressed  were  so  contradictory 
that  one  could  make  nothing  of  them  together. 
Nothing  definite  was  known,  nor  did  it  seem  to  matter 
that  the  wise  men  of  the  tribe  held  different  views 
one  from  another;  the  one  thing  certain  was,  that  all 
study  of  such  matters  was  attended  with  the  greatest 
difficulty,  and  much  remained  beyond  our  knowledge. 
The  general  view  of  life  after  death  is  best  shown  in 
the  following  story,  which  was  told  to  me  by  Kiv- 
karjuk: 

"  Heaven  is  a  great  country  with  many  holes  in. 
These  holes  we  call  the  stars.  Many  people  live 
there,  and  whenever  they  upset  anything,  it  falls 
down  through  the  stars  in  the  form  of  rain  or  snow. 
Up  in  the  land  of  heaven  live  the  souls  of  dead 
men  and  beasts,  under  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  Tapasum 
Inua, 

II  The  souls  of  men  and  beasts  are  brought  down  to 
earth  by  the  moon.    This  is  done  when  the  moon  is 
not  to  be  seen  in  the  sky;  it  is  then  on  its  way  to 
earth,  bringing  souls.    After  death,  we  do  not  al- 
ways remain  as  we  were  during  life;  the  souls  of  men, 
for  instance,  may  turn  into  all  kinds  of  animals. 
Pinga  looks  after  the  souls  of  animals,  and  does  not 
like  to  see  too  many  of  them  killed.    Nothing  is 
lost;  and  blood  and  entrails  must  be  covered  up  alter 
a  caribou  has  been  killed. 

11  So  we  see  that  life  is  endless ;  only  we  do  not  know 
in  what  form  we  shall  reappear  after  death/1 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  81 

The  easiest  way  to  learn,  of  course,  was  to  inquire 
of  an  angakoq,  and  in  the  course  of  my  long  conver- 
sations with  Igjugarjuk  I  learned  many  interesting 
things.  His  theories,  however,  were  so  simple  and 
straightforward  that  they  sound  strikingly  modern; 
his  whole  view  of  life  may  be  summed  up  in  his  own 
words  as  follows:  "All  true  wisdom  is  only  to  be 
learned  far  from  the  dwellings  of  men,  out  in  the 
great  solitudes;  and  is  only  to  be  attained  through 
suffering.  Privation  and  suffering  are  the  only  things 
that  can  open  the  mind  of  man  to  those  things  which 
are  hidden  from  others." 

A  man  does  not  become  an  angakoq  because  he 
wishes  it  himself,  but  because  certain  mysterious 
powers  in  the  universe  convey  to  him  the  impression 
that  he  has  been  chosen,  and  this  takes  place  as  a 
revelation  in  a  dream. 

This  mysterious  force  which  plays  so  great  a  part 
in  men's  fate,  is  called  Sila,  and  is  very  difficult  to 
define,  or  even  to  translate.  The  word  has  three 
meanings:  the  universe;  the  weather,  and  finally,  a 
mixture  of  common  sense,  intelligence  and  wisdom. 
In  the  religious  sense,  Sila  is  used  to  denote  a  power 
which  can  be  invoked  and  applied  by  mankind;  a 
power  personified  in  Silap  Inua,  the  Lord  of  Power, 
or  literally,  the  one  possessing  power.  Often  also, 
the  term  Pinga  is  used,  this  being  a  spirit  in  the  form 
of  a  woman,  which  is  understood  to  dwell  somewhere 
in  space,  and  only  manifests  itself  when  specially 
needed.  There  is  no  definite  idea  as  to  her  being  the 
creator  of  mankind,  or  the  origin  of  animals  used 
for  food;  all  fear  her,  however,  as  a  stern  mistress 


82  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

of  the  household,  keeping  watch  on  all  the  doings  of 
men,  especially  as  regards  their  dealings  with  the 
animals  killed. 

She  is  omnipresent,  interfering  as  occasion  may 
require.  One  of  her  principal  commandments  ap- 
pears to  be  that  daily  food  should  be  treated  with 
respect,  care  being  taken  that  nothing  is  wasted. 
There  are  certain  ceremonies,  for  instance,  to  be 
observed  on  the  killing  of  a  caribou,  as  mentioned  in 
the  story  just  quoted. 

All  the  rules  of  tabu  are  connected  with  Sila,  and 
designed  to  maintain  a  balance  of  amicable  relations 
with  this  power.  The  obligations  imposed  by  Sila 
are  not  particularly  burdensome,  and  perhaps  for 
that  very  reason  trespass  is  severely  punished;  as 
for  instance  by  bad  weather,  dearth  of  game,  sick- 
ness, and  the  like;  in  a  word,  all  that  is  most  to  be 
feared. 

The  angakoq  serves  as  interpreter  between  Sila 
and  mankind.  Sila's  leading  qualities  are  those  of 
healing  in  sickness  or  guarding  against  the  iUwill  of 
others.  When  a  sick  person  desires  to  be  cured,  he 
must  give  away  all  his  possessions,  and  is  then  car- 
ried out  and  laid  on  the  earth  far  from  any  dwelling; 
for  whoever  would  invoke  the  Great  Spirit  must  have 
no  possessions  save  his  breath. 

Igjugarjuk  himself,  when  a  young  man,  was  con- 
stantly visited  by  dreams  which  he  could  not  under- 
stand. Strange  unknown  beings  came  and  spoke 
to  him,  and  when  he  awoke,  he  saw  all  the  visions 
of  his  dream  so  distinctly  that  he  could  tell  his  fel- 
lows all  about  them.  Soon  it  became  evident  to 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  83 

all  that  he  was  destined  to  become  an  angakoq  and 
an  old  man  named  Perqanaoq  was  appointed  his 
instructor.  In  the  depth  of  winter,  when  the  cold 
was  most  severe,  Igjugarjuk  was  placed  on  a  small 
sledge  just  large  enough  for  him  to  sit  on,  and  carried 
far  away  from  his  home  to  the  other  side  of  Hikolig- 
juaq.  On  reaching  the  appointed  spot,  he  remained 
seated  on  the  sledge  while  his  instructor  built  a 
tiny  snow  hut,  with  barely  room  for  him  to  sit 
cross-legged.  He  was  not  allowed  to  set  foot  on  the 
snow,  but  was  lifted  from  the  sledge  and  carried  into 
the  hut,  where  a  piece  of  skin  just  large  enough  for 
him  to  sit  on  served  as  a  carpet.  No  food  or  drink 
was  given  him;  he  was  exhorted  to  think  only  of  the 
Great  Spirit  and  of  the  helping  spirit  that  should 
presently  appear— and  so  he  was  left  to  himself  and 
his  meditations. 

After  five  days  had  elapsed,  the  instructor  brought 
'hfrrt  a  drink  of  !ukew*ffioi  water,  and  with  similar 
exhortations,  left  frtm  as  before.  He  fasted  now  for 
fifteen  days,  when  he  was  given  another  drink  of 
water  and  a  very  small  piece  of  meat,  which  had  to 
last  him  a  further  ten  days.  At  the  end  of  this 
period,  his  instructor  came  for  him  and  fetched  him 
home.  Igjugarjuk  declared  that  the  strain  of  those 
thirty  days  of  cold  and  fasting  was  so  severe  that  he 
"sometimes  died  a  little."  During  all  that  time  he 
thought  only  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  endeavored 
to  keep  his  mind  free  from  all  memory  of  human 
beings  and  everyday  things.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  thirty  days  there  came  to  him  a  helping  spirit 
in  the  shape  of  a  woman.  She  came  while  he  was 


84  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

asleep,  and  seemed  to  hover  in  the  air  above  him. 
After  that  he  dreamed  no  more  of  her,  but  she  became 
his  helping  spirit.  For  five  months  following  this 
period  of  trial,  he  was  kept  on  the  strictest  diet,  and 
required  to  abstain  from  all  intercourse  with  women. 
The  fasting  was  then  repeated;  for  such  fasts  at 
frequent  intervals  are  the  best  means  of  attaining 
to  knowledge  of  hidden  things.*  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  period  of  study;  it  depends 
on  how  much  one  is  willing  to  suffer  and  anxious  to 
learn. 

Every  wizard  has  a  belt,  which  often  plays  a  great 
part  in  his  invocations  of  the  spirits.  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  acquire  one  of  these  belts  from  a  woman 
who  was  herself  a  witch  doctor,  named  Kinalik.  It 
consisted  of  an  ordinary  strap  of  hide  on  which  were 
hung  or  strung  the  following  items:  a  splinter  from 
the  stock  of  a  gun  worn  in  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
her  initiation  had  taken  place  by  means  of  visions  of 
death;  a  piece  of  sinew  thread,  which  had  formerly 
been  used  to  fasten  tent  poles  with,  and  had  on  some 
occasion  or  other  been  used  for  a  magic  demonstra- 
tion; a  piece  of  ribbon  from  a  packet  of  tobacco; 
a  piece  of  an  old  cap  formerly  belonging  to  her 
brother — the  brother  was  now  dead,  and  was  one 
of  her  helping  spirits — a  piece  of  white  caribou  skin, 
some  plaited  withies,  a  model  of  a  canoe,  a  caribou's 
tooth,  a  mitten  and  a  scrap  of  sealskin.  All  these 
things  possessed  magnetic  power,  by  virtue  of  their 
having  been  given  to  her  by  persons  who  wished  her 
well.  Any  gift  conveys  strength.  It  need  not  be 
great  or  costly  in  itself;  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 


NOMAD'S  LIFE  85 

object  is  nothing,  it  is  the  thought  which  goes  with 
it  that  gives  strength. 

Kitmlik  was  still  quite  a  young  woman,  very  in- 
telligent, kind-hearted,  clean  and  good-looking,  and 
spoke  frankly,  without  reserve.  Igjugarjuk  was  her 
brother-in-law,  and  had  himself  been  her  instructor 
in  magic.  Her  own  initiation  had  been  severe;  she 
was  hung  up  to  some  tent  poles  planted  in  the  snow 
and  left  there  for  five  days.  It  was  midwinter,  with 
intense  cold  and  frequent  blizzards,  but  she  did  not 
feel  the  cold,  for  the  spirit  protected  her.  When 
the  five  days  were  at  an  end,  she  was  taken  down 
and  carried  into  the  house,  and  Igjugarjuk  was  in- 
vited to  shoot  her,  in  order  that  she  might  attain 
to  intimacy  wi$h  the  supernatural  by  visions  of 
death.  The  gun  was  to  be  loaded  with  real  powder, 
but  a  stone  was  to  be  used  instead  of  the  leaden  bullet , 
in  order  that  she  might  still  retain  connection  with 
earth.  Igjugarjuk,  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled 
villagers,  fired  the  shot,  and  Krnalik  fell  to  the  ground 
unomscious.  On  the  following  morning,  just  as 
Igjugarjuk  was  about  to  bring  her  to  life  again,  she 
awakened  from  the  swoon  unaided.  Igjugarjuk  as- 
serted that  he  had  shot  her  through  the  heart,  and 
that  the  stone  had  afterwards  been  removed  and  was 
in  the  possession  of  her  old  mother. 

Another  of  the  villagers,  a  young  man  named 
Aggjartoq,  had  also  been  initiated  into  the  mysteries 
of  the  occult  with  Igjugarjuk  as  his  teacher;  and  in 
his  case,  a  third  form  of  ordeal  had  been  employed; 
to  wit,  that  of  drowning.  He  was  lashed  to  a  long 
pole  and  carried  out  on  to  a  lake,  a  hole  was  cut  in 


86  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  ice,  and  the  pole  with  its  living  burden  thrust 
down  through  the  hole,  in  such  a  fashion  that  Agg- 
jartoq  actually  stood  on  the  bottom  of  the  lake  with 
his  head  tinder  water.  He  was  left  in  this  position 
for  five  days  and  when  at  last  they  hauled  him  up 
again,  his  clothes  showed  no  sign  of  having  been 
in  the  water  at  all  and  he  himself  had  become  a 
great  wizard,  having  overcome  death. 

These  inland  Eskimos  are  very  little  concerned 
about  the  idea  of  death;  they  believe  that  all  men 
are  born  again,  the  soul  passing  on  continually 
from  one  form  of  life  to  another.  Good  men  return 
to  earth  as  men,  but  evildoers  are  re-born  as  beasts, 
and  in  this  way  the  earth  is  replenished,  for  no  life 
once  given  can  ever  be  lost  or  destroyed. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL 

VV7E  very  soon  realized  that  the  culture  of  these 
W  Caribou  Eskimos  was  of  inland  origin.  It  was 
the  most  primitive  we  had  encountered  during  the 
whole  of  the  expedition,  and  all  the  facts  tended  to 
show  that  we  were  here  well  on  the  way  to  a  solution 
of  one  of  our  most  important  problems. 

Their  religion,  for  instance,  was  of  a  pronounced 
inland  type,  differing  essentially  from  that  of  the 
coast  peoples,  and  in  respect  of  tabu  especially  unlike 
that  of  the  sea  and  shore.  The  ceremonies  attend- 
ing birth  and  death  in  particular  were  far  simpler 
than  those  in  use  among  the  coast  Eskimos,  Plainly, 
the  people  who  first  found  their  way  to  the  sea  had 
seen  in  it,  and  in  the  mode  of  life  which  it  involved, 
new  and  mysterious  elements  which  had  given  rise 
to  their  complicated  mythology  and  ceremonial 

The  fact  that  the  sea  was  new  to  them  was  further 
confirmed  by  the  entire  absence  of  any  implements, 
whether  among  those  in  use  or  others  now  obsolete, 
such  as  would  be  used  by  dwellers  on  the  coast. 

Nevertheless,  we  soon  found  that  they  had  many 
traditions  in  common  with  the  Greenland  Eskimos; 
indeed,  a  number  of  their  folk-tales  and  legends  are 
altogether  identical  with  Greenland  stories. 

Out  of  fifty-two  stories  which  I  wrote  down  among 

37 


88  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  Padlermiut  at  Hikoligjuaq,  no  fewer  than  thirty 
were  identical  with  ones  I  had  already  heard  in 
Greenland,  and  this  despite  the  fact  that  for  thou- 
sands of  years  past,  no  intercourse  had  taken  place 
between  the  two  groups  of  people. 

An  unquestionable  connection  exists  between  the 
Greenlanders_~  and  their  Canadian  kinsfolk  in  the 
matter  of  story  and  legend.  These  stories  more- 
over show  that  the  poor  Eskimo  can  at  times  find 
room  for  thought  of  things  beyond  the  mere  material 
needs  of  the  day;  many  of  them  show  a  forceful 
simplicity,  a  touch  of  epic  strength,  and  a  poetic 
sense,  which  command  our  admiration. 

Here  are  several  of  the  shorter  ones: 

THE  OWL  THAT  WOOED  A  SNOW  BUNTING 

There  was  once  a  little  snow  bunting;  it  sat  on  a 
tuft  and  wept  because  its  husband  was  dead.  Then 
came  a  big  fat  Owl  and  sang: 

Foolish  one,  weeping 
For  a  miserable  husband 
With  a  spear 
Made  of  grass. 
I— I  will  be 
Your  husband. 

The  little  bird  answered: 

Who  would  ever 
Have  you  for  a  husband? 
With  your  lumpy,  clumsy 
And  that  ugly-fashioned  beak, 
Podgy  legs,  and  fat  round  face 
And  a  head  without  a  neck ! 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL          89 

But  the  owl  was  so  angry  at  this,  that  it  swooped 
down  on  the  little  snow  bunting,  and  struck  it  in 
the  breast  and  then,  when  it  cried  in  pain,  the  owl 
jeered  at  it,  saying:  "Ho,  what  a  woman,  that  can 
feel  pain  in  the  breast  and  yet  have  such  a  sharp 
tongue!" 

Told  by  KIVKARJTJK,  of  Hikoligjuaq. 
(Known  throughout  the  whole  of  Greenland.) 

How  THE  WHITE  MEN  AND  THE  INDIANS  CAME 

There  was  once  a  maiden  who  refused  all  men 
who  wished  to  marry  her.  At  last  her  father  was 
so  annoyed  at  this  that  he  rowed  off  with  her  and 
his  dog  to  an  island  out  in  the  lake  of  Haningajoq, 
not  far  from  Hikoligjuaq,  and  left  her  there  with 
the  dog.  Then  the  dog  took  her  to  wife,  and  she  gave 
birth  to  many  whelps.  And  her  father  brought  meat 
to  the  island,  that  they  might  not  die  of  hunger. 
One  day  when  they  were  grown  up,  their  mother 
said  to  them:  "Next  time  your  grandfather  comes 
out  to  the  island,  swim  out  to  meet  "him,  and  upset 
his  kayak/' 

The  dogs  did  so  and  the  girl's  father  was  drowned. 
Thus  she  took  vengeance  upon  her  father  for  having 
married  her  to  a  dog.  But  now  that  he  was  dead, 
there  was  no  one  to  bring  the  dogs  meat,  so  the 
girl  cut  the  soles  out  of  her  kamiks,  and  placed  them 
in  the  water,  and  worked  magic  over  them.  Then 
she  set  some  of  the  dogs  on  one  sole,  and  said: 
"Go  out  into  the  world  and  become  skilful  in  aH 
manner  of  work!" 

And  the  dogs  drifted  out  away  from  the  island  and 
when  they  had  gone  a  little  way,  the  sole  turned  into 
a  ship,  and  they  sailed  away  to  the  white  men's 
country  and  became  white  men..  And  from  them, 
it  is  said,  all  white  men  are  descended. 


90  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

But  the  rest  of  the  dogs  were  set  on  the  other  sole, 
and  as  it  floated  away,  the  girl  said:  "Take  ven- 
geance for  all  the  wrong  your  grandfather  did  to 
me,  and  show  yourselves  henceforward  thirsty  for 
blood  as  often  as  you  meet  one  of  the  Inuit." 

And  the  dogs  sailed  away  to  a  strange  land,  and 
went  ashore  there  and  became  the  ItqigdKt.  Prom 
these  are  descended  all  those  Indians  whom  our 
forefathers  dreaded,  for  they  slew  the  Inuit  wherever 
they  could  find  them.  And  this  they  continued  to 
do  until  their  brothers,  the  white  men  from  the 
island  of  Anarnigtoq,  took  land  in  their  country 
and  taught  them  gentler  ways. 

Told  by  IGJUGARJUK, 
(This  story  is  known  in  Greenland.) 

THE  RAVEN  AND  THE  LOON 

In  the  olden  days,  all  birds  were  white.  And  then 
one  day  the  raven  and  the  loon  fell  to  drawing 
patterns  on  each  others  feathers.  The  raven  began, 
and  when  it  had  finished,  the  loon  was  so  displeased 
with  the  pattern  that  it  spat  all  over  the  raven  and 
made  it  black  all  over.  And  since  that  day  all 
ravens  have  been  black.  But  the  raven  was  so 
angry  that  it  fell  upon  the  loon  and  beat  it  so  about 
the  legs  that  it  could  hardly  walk.  And  that  is 
why  the  loon  is  such  an  awkward  creature  on  land. 

(There  is  a  Greenland  version  of  this.) 

THUNDER  AND  LIGHTNING 

In  the  olden  days,  nobody  ever  stole  anything. 
But  then  one  day  when  a  great  song  festival  was 
being  held,  two  children  were  left  alone  in  a  house. 
Here  they  found  a  caribou  skin  with  the  hair  off, 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL          91 

and  a  firestone,  and  desired  to  have  these  things  for 
their  own.  But  hardly  had  they  taken  them  when  a 
great  fear  came  upon  them. 

"What  shall  we  do,"  cried  one,  "to  get  away  from 
people?" 

"Let  us  turn  ourselves  into  caribou,"  answered 
the  other." 

"No;  for  then  they  will  catch  us;  let  us  turn  into 
wolves." 

"No;  for  then  they  will  kill  us.  Let  us  turn  into 
foxes." 

And  so  they  went  on,  naming  all  the  ^nfm^fes  there 
were,  but  always  fearing  that  men  should  kill  them. 
Then  at  last  one  said:  Let  us  be  thunder  and  Eght- 
ning.  For  then  men  could  not  reach  them.  And  so 
it  came  about;  they  went  up  into  the  sky  and  became 
thunder  and  lightning.  And  now  when  we  hear  the 
thunder  it  is  one  of  them  rattling  the  dry  skin,  and 
when  we  see  the  lightning  it  is  the  other  one  striking 
sparks  from  the  stone. 

Told  by  Arnarqik,  of  Nahigtartorvik,  Kazan  River. 

(Also  known  in  Greenland) 

THE  OWL  AND  THE  MARMOT 

There  was  once  an  owl  who  went  out  hunting,  and 
seeing  a  marmot  outside  its  house,  it  flew  towards  it 
and  sitting  down  in  front  of  the  entrance,  sang: 

" 1  have  barred  the  way  of  a  land  beast  to  its  home. 
Come  and  fetch  it,  and  bring  two  sledges." 

But  the  marmot  answered:  "  0  mighty  owl,  spread 
your  legs  a  little  wider  apart,  and  show  me  that 
powerful  chest," 

And  the  owl  hearing  this  was  proud  of  its  broad 
chest,  and  spread  its  legs  wider  apart. 

Then  the  marmot  cried:  "Wider,  wider  still." 


92  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

And  the  owl  feeling  even  prouder  than  before 
spread  its  legs  a  little  wider  still,  and  stretched  its 
chest  as  far  as  it  could. 

But  then  the  marmot  slipped  between  its  legs  and 
and  ran  off  into  its  hole. 

Told  by  Kivkarjuk. 

I  was  told  that  there  should  be  a  larger  settlement 
on  the  southern  shore  of  Hikoligjuaq,  and  I  deter- 
mined to  cross  and  pay  a  visit  to  the  natives  there. 
On  the  day  before  our  departure,  a  grand  song  fes- 
tival was  arranged,  to  be  held  in  Igjugarjuk's  tent. 
In  the  afternoon  the  guests  arrived,  as  many  as  the 
tent  would  hold.  The  singer  stood  in  the  middle 
with  closed  eyes,  accompanying  his  song  with  a  sway- 
ing movement  of  the  hips,  while  the  women,  seated 
in  a  group  on  the  bench,  joined  in  the  chorus  every 
now  and  then,  their  voices  contrasting  pleasantly 
with  the  deeper  tones  of  the  men. 

Here  are  the  words  of  some  of  the  songs: 

IGJUGARJUK'S  SONG 

Yai — yai — yai 

Ya — ayai — ya 

I  ran  with  all  speed 

And  met  them  on  the  plain, 

The  great  Musk  Ox  with  brilliant  black  hair — 

Hayai — ya — haya. 

It  was  the  first  time  I  had  seen  them, 
Grazing  on  the  flowers  of  the  plain, 
Far  from  the  hill  where  I  stood, 
And  ignorantly  I  thought 
They  were  but  small  and  slight  .  .  . 


QINGARUVDLIAQ,  THE  WOMAN  WHO  KNEW  ALL  THE  MEN'S  SONGS  AND  PROMPTED 
THEM  WHEN  THEY  FORGOT  THE  WORDS 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL          93 

But  they  grew  up  out  of  the  earth 

As  I  came  within  shot, 

Great  black  giant  beasts 

Far  from  our  dwellings 

In  the  regions  of  happy  summer  hunting. 

AVANE'S  SONG 

Lo,  alas,  I  look  and  seek 
All  impatient,  eagerly, 
For  the  caribou  in  the  hills; 
Am  I  old  and  worthless  now, 
Since  I  hunt  in  vain? 
I  who  once  could  stand  and  shoot 
Swiftly  without  aiming 
Striking  down  with  sudden  arrow 
Bulls  with  spreading  horn; 
Saw  the  great  beast  fall  and  lie 
With  muzzle  deep  in  mire. 

Women  do  not  as  a  rule  sing  their  own  songs.  No 
woman  is  expected  to  sing  ttoless  expressly  invited  by 
an  angakoq.  As  a  rule,  they  sing  songs  made  by 
the  men.  Should  it  happen,  however,  that  a  woman 
feels  a  spirit  impelling  her  to  sing,  she  may  step  forth 
from  the  chorus  and  follow  her  own  inspiration. 
Among  the  women  here,  only  two  were  thus  favored 
by  the  spirits;  one  was  Igjugarjuk's  first  wife, 
Kivkarjuk,  now  dethroned,  and  the  other  Akjartoq, 
the  mother  of  KinaKk. 

KIVKARJUK'S  SONG 

I  am  but  a  little  woman 
Very  willing  to  toil, 


94  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Very  willing  and  happy 

To  work  and  slave  .  .  . 

And  in  my  eagerness 

To  be  of  use, 

I  pluck  the  furry  buds  of  willow 

Buds  like  beard  of  wolf. 

I  love  to  go  walking  far  and  far  away, 

And  my  soles  are  worn  through 

As  I  pluck  the  buds  of  willow, 

That  are  furry  like  the  great  wolf's  beard. 


AKJARTOQ'S  SONG 

I  draw  a  deep  breath, 

But  my  breath  comes  heavily 

As  I  call  forth  the  song  .  .  . 

There  are  ill  rumors  abroad, 

Of  some  who  starve  in  the  far  places, 

And  can  find  no  meat, 

I  call  forth  the  song 
From  above, 
H  ayaya — haya. 

And  now  I  forget 

How  hard  it  was  to  breathe, 

Remembering  old  times, 

When  I  had  strength 

To  cut  and  flay  great  beasts* 

Three  great  beasts  could  I  cut  up 

While  the  sun  slowly  went  his  way 

Across  the  sky. 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL    95 

In  addition  to  ordinary  hunting  songs  and  lyrics 
there  are  songs  of  derision,  satires  with  a  mercilessly 
personal  address;  two  men  will  stand  up  in  turn 
and  accuse  each  other  before  the  assembled  neigh- 
bors. These  accusations,  even  when  well  founded, 
are  received  with  surprising  calmness,  whereas  "evil 
or  angry  words"  may  have  far  more  serious  effects. 

I  give  here  Utahania's  impeachment  of  one  Kanai- 
juaq  who  had  quarrelled  with  his  wife  and  attempted 
to  desert  her,  leaving  her  to  her  fate  out  in  the  wilds; 
the  woman,  however,  had  proved  not  only  able  *to 
stand  up  for  herself  in  a  rough-and-tumble,  but  left 
her  husband  of  her  own  accord  and  went  to  shift  for 
herself,  taking  her  son  with  her. 

Something  was  whispered 

Of  man  and  wife 

Who  could  not  agree. 

And  what  was  it  aft  abo&t? 

A  wife  who  in  rightful  anger 

Tore  her  husband's  ftirs  across, 

Took  their  canoe 

And  rowed  away  with  her  son. 

Ay — ay,  all  who  listen, 

What  do  you  think  of  him, 

Poor  sort  of  man? 

Is  he  to  be  envied, 

Who  is  great  in  his  anger 

But  faint  in  strength, 

Blubbering  helplessly 

Properly  chastised? 

Though  it  was  he  who  foolishly  proud 

Started  the  quarrel  with  stupid  words. 


96  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Kanaijuaq  retorted  with  a  song  accusing  Utahatiia 
of  improper  behavior  at  home;  his  hard  words 
however,  seemed  to  make  no  difference  to  their  friend- 
ship. Far  more  serious  was  the  effect  of  malicious 
words  in  the  case  of  Utahania's  foster-son  who  was 
once  upbraided  by  his  foster-father  as  follows: 

"I  wish  you  were  dead!  You  are  not  worth  the 
food  you  eat."  And  the  young  man  took  the  words 
so  deeply  to  heart  that  he  declared  he  would  never  eat 
again.  To  make  his  sufferings  as  brief  as  possible, 
he  lay  down  the  same  night  stark  naked  on  the  bare 
snow,  and  was  frozen  to  death. 

Halfway  through  the  festival  it  was  announced 
that  Kinalik,  the  woman  angakoq,  would  invoke  her 
helping  spirits  and  clear  the  way  of  all  dangers  ahead. 
Sila  was  to  be  called  in  to  aid  one  who  could  not 
help  himself.  All  the  singing  now  ceased,  and  Kinalik 
stood  forth  alone  with  her  eyes  tightly  closed.  She 
uttered  no  incantation,  but  stood  trembling  all  over, 
and  her  face  twitched  from  time  to  time  as  if  in  pain. 
This  was  her  way  of  "  looking  inward,"  and  pene- 
trating the  veil  of  the  future;  the  great  thing  was  to 
concentrate  all  one's  force  intently  on  the  one  idea, 
of  calling  forth  good  for  those  about  to  set  out  on  their 
journey. 

Igjugarjuk,  who  never  let  slip  an  opportunity  of 
exalting  his  own  tribe  at  the  expense  of  the  "salt 
water  Eskimo,"  informed  me  at  this  juncture  that 
their  angakoqs  never  danced  about  doing  tricks,  nor 
did  they  have  recourse  to  particular  forms  of  speech; 
the  one  essential  was  truth  and  earnestness— all  the 
rest  wasmere  trickwork  designed  to  impress  the  vulgar. 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL          97 

When  Kinalik  had  reached  the  utmost  limit  of  her 
concentration,  I  was  requested  to  go  outside  the  tent 
and  stand  on  a  spot  where  there  were  no  footmarks, 
remaining  there  until  I  was  called  in.  Here,  on  the 
untrodden  snow,  I  was  to  present  myself  before  Sila, 
standing  silent  and  humble,  and  desiring  sky  and  air 
and  all  the  forces  of  nature  to  look  upon  me  and  show 
me  goodwill. 

It  was  a  peculiar  form  of  worship  or  devotion, 
which  I  now  encountered  for  the  first  time;  it  was  the 
first  time,  also,  that  I  had  seen  Sila  represented  as  a 
benign  power. 

After  I  had  stood  thus  for  a  time,  I  was  calkd  in 
again.  Kirialik  had  now  resumed  her  natural  ex- 
pression, and  was  beaming  all  over. .  She  assured 
me  that  the  Great  Spirit  had  heard  her  prayer,  and 
that  all  dangers  should  be  removed  from  our  path; 
also,  that  we  should  have  success  in  our  hunting 
whenever  we  needed  meat. 

This  prophecy  was  greeted  with  applause  and 
general  satisfaction;  it  was  plain  to  see  that  these 
good  folk,  in  their  simple,  innocent  fashion,  gave  us 
their  blessing  and  had  done  all  they  could  to  render  it 
effective.  There  was  no  doubting  the  sincerity  of 
their  goodwill. 

On  the  following  night  we  were  racing  at  full  speed 
over  the  wintry  surface  of  Lake  Hikoligjuaq.  The 
firm  ice  was  spread  with  a  thin  layer  of  soft,  moist 
snow,  acting  as  a  soft  carpet  to  the  dogs'  paws, 
and  the  long  rest  in  complete  idleness  with  plenty 
of  fresh  caribou  meat  had  given  them  a  degree  of 
vitality  that  made  it  a  pleasure  to  be  out  once  more. 


98  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

We  had  two  lads  with  us  as  guides,  who  had  borrowed 
Igjugarjuk's  dogs,  but  it  was  not  long  before  they 
were  hopelessly  out-distanced,  and  we  had  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  a  guess  at  our  direction. 

Early  in  the  morning,  before  the  sun  was  fairly 
warm,  we  reached  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake  and 
camped  in  a  pleasant  little  valley,  fastening  the  dogs 
in  a  thicket  of  young  willow  that  stood  bursting 
in  bud  to  greet  the  spring. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  we  went  out  to  reconnoitre. 
And  it  was  not  long  before  we  came  upon  a  solitary 
caribou  hunter  observing  us  from  a  little  hill.  He 
was  just  taking  to  flight  when  the  two  lads  from  the 
last  village,  who  had  now  come  up,  recognized  him 
and  called  him  by  name,  when  he  walked  up  smiling 
to  meet  them.  He  informed  us  that  there  was  a 
village  of  five  tents  a  couple  of  hours'  journey  farther 
inland,  and  that  we  could  reach  the  place  without 
difficulty,  although  the  ground  was  bare.  We  tried 
to  persuade  him  to  come  back  with  us  to  the  camp, 
but  he  preferred  to  go  on  ahead  and  tell  his  comrades 
of  the  strange  meeting.  And  before  we  had  gone 
far,  the  whole  party  came  down  and  overtook  us, 
they  had  been  too  impatient  to  wait  for  our  arrival. 
It  was  hard  work  for  the  dogs  to  get  the  sledge  over 
the  numerous  hills,  and  even  the  level  grotmd  was 
difficult  going,  sodden  as  it  was  with  water  and 
broken  by  tussocks  and  pools.  There  were  plenty 
of  willing  hands,  however,  and  we  made  our  way, 
albeit  slowly,  with  a  great  deal  of  merriment.  Miteq 
and  I  had  to  face  an  endless  rain  of  questions.  These 
inland  folk  look  upon  the  sea  as  something  wonderful 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL          99 

and  mysterious,  far  beyond  their  ken;  and  when  we 
explained  that  we  had  had  to  cross  many  seas  in 
coming  from  our  own  land  to  theirs,  they  regarded 
our  coming  in  itself  as  something  of  a  marvel.  And 
we  agreed  with  them  in  their  surprise  at  our  being 
able  to  understand  one  another's  speech. 

Suddenly  speech  and  laughter  died  away;  the  dogs 
pricked  up  their  ears,  and  a  strange  silence  fell  upon 
all.  There,  full  in  our  way,  lay  the  body  of  a  woman 
prone  on  the  ground*  We  stood  for  a  moment  at  a 
loss.  Then  the  men  wait  forward,  while  we  held 
back  our  dogs*  The  figure  still  lay  motionless*  A 
loud  wailing  came  from  the  party  ahead,  and  Miteq 
and  I  stood  vaguely  horrified,  not  knowing  what  it 
meant.  Then  one  of  the  men  came  back  and 
explained  that  we  had  found  the  corpse  of  a  woman 
who  had  been,  lost  in  a  blizzard  the  winter  before — 
and  he  pointed  to  one  of  those  bending  over  her;  that 
was  her  husband. 

It  had  been  a  hard  winter,  and  just  when  the  cold 
was  most  severe,  six  of  those  in  the  village  had  died 
of  hunger.  A  man  named  Atangagjuaq  then  deter- 
mined to  set  out  for  a  neighboring  village  in  search 
of  aid,  and  his  wife,  fearing  lest,  weak  as  he  was,  he 
might  be  unable  to  complete  the  journey,  had 
followed  after  him.  She  herself,  however,  had  been 
lost  in  the  snow  before  coming  up  with  him.  They 
had  searched  for  her  that  winter,  and  in  the  following 
spring,  but  without  result;  and  now  here  she  lay, 
discovered  by  the  merest  accident  right  athwart  our 
course, 

I  walked  forward  to  view  the  body  of  this  woman 


loo          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

who  had  lost  her  life  in  a  vain  attempt  to  help  her 
husband.  There  was  nothing  repulsive  in  the  sight; 
she  just  lay  there,  with  limbs  extended,  and  an 
expression  of  unspeakable  weariness  on  her  face.  It 
was  plain  to  see  that  she  had  walked  on  and  on, 
struggling  against  the  blizzard  till  she  could  go  no 
farther,  and  sank  exhausted,  while  the  snow  swiftly 
covered  her,  leaving  no  trace. 

The  body  was  left  lying  as  it  was;  no  one  touched  it. 
We  drove  on,  and  in  an  hour's  time  reached  the 
Eskimo  camp. 

These  people  are  quick  to  change  from  one  extreme 
of  feeling  to  another.  We  had  not  gone  far  on  our 
way  before  the  dead  woman,  to  all  seeming,  was 
forgotten,  and  the  merriment  that  had  met  with  so 
sudden  a  check  broke  out  afresh.  As  soon  as  we 
had  put  up  our  tent,  the  men  got  hold  of  our  ski,  and 
went  off  to  try  them  in  a  good  deep  snowdrift  that 
still  lay  in  a  gap.  They  had  never  seen  ski  before, 
and  great  shouts  of  laughter  greeted  the  first  attempts 
of  those  venturesome  enough  to  try  them.  One  of 
the  gayest  of  the  party  was  Atangagjuaq,  who  but 
a  few  minutes  earlier  had  stood  weeping  beside  the 
body  of  his  wife, 

By  the  2  ist  of  June,  we  were  once  more  on  the  ice  of 
Lake  Hikoligjuaq,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  22nd, 
just  at  stinrise,  we  reached  the  spot  where  the  others 
of  our  party  were  encamped.  That  sunrise  was,  I 
think,  the  most  remarkable  I  have  ever  seen.  To 
the  north,  on  the  horizon,  was  a  dense  white  mass  of 
cloud,  like  a  reflection  from  the  lake  itself,  but  with 
a  narrow  belt  of  delicate  green  below.  The  country 


YOUNG  WOMEN 

They  were  always  happy  and  smiling,  and  handsome  as  well. 


WITH  NO  EDITORS  TO  SPOIL        101 

round  was  outlined  in  masses  of  black.  Then 
suddenly  there  was  a  glow  of  fire,  a  tongue  of  flame 
broke  through  the  pale  green  below  the  cloud,  lighting 
up  all  the  sky;  light,  fragile  veils  of  rosy  cloud-stuff 
floated  by  overhead,  and  the  ice  below  was  tinged  with 
the  palest  mauve.  The  contours  of  shore  and  hill 
stood  out  now  darker  than  before,  while  flowers  of 
fire  appeared  on  the  horizon  Eke  fairy-lamps  Ht  one 
after  another,  gradually  merging  into  a®&  great  con- 
flagration. Then  up  came  the  stm  iteelf,  and  all 
the  varied  colors  were  lost  ixi  oae  stark  fed  glow 
reflected  in  our  faces  as  we  looked. 

It  was  like  driving  into  a  burning  city;  and  we 
remained  spellbound  ttntil  the  barking  of  dogs  and 
shouts  of  welcome  from  our  companions  brought  us 
back  to  reality  and  busy  freshness  of  a  new  day.  *  .  * 


CHAPTER   VIII 

BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS 

IGJUGARJUK  had  for  some  time  past  been  talking 
*  of  making  a  trip  down  to  Baker  Lake,  and  was 
now  getting  ready  for  the  journey.  Then  one  day  a 
canoe  came  up  from  the  south,  in  charge  of  a  young 
man,  Equmeq,  by  name.  It  was  decided  that  Birket- 
Smith  and  Bangsted,  with  the  greater  part  of  our 
ethnographical  collections,  should  start  with  this 
party  for  Baker  Lake,  Igjugarjuk  taking  the  rest, 
and  Miteq  and  I  going  by  sledge — a  plan  which 
caused  much  head-shaking  among  the  natives,  who 
regarded  sledging  as  dangerous  or  impossible  at  this 
season. 

Certainly,  our  journey  turned  out  worse  than  we 
had  expected.  The  ground  was  soft  and  wet,  and 
very  uneven,  at  the  best,  added  to  which  we  came 
every  now  and  then  to  swollen  streams,  often  so  deep 
that  we  had  to  follow  them  some  distance  up  to  find 
a  practicable  crossing  among  the  ice  of  the  lakes. 
The  constant  detours,  again,  took  up  so  much  time 
that  we  had  little  left  for  hunting,  and  had  to  reduce 
our  rations  and  those  of  the  dogs  accordingly. 
Igjugarjuk  and  the  lake  party  had  simply  to  follow 
the  river  and  we  were  supposed  to  come  up  with  them 
every  evening.  Actually  we  often  failed  to  make 
their  camp  in  time,  but  Igjugarjuk  always  waited 

1 02 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS          103 

faithfully  till  we  did  come  up,  and  gave  us  directions 
for  the  next  day's  route.  On  one  occasion  we  came 
within  a  hair's  breadth  of  losing  the  canoe  with 
its  precious  load.  We  had  just  got  in  to  camp,  on 
the  bank  of  a  stream  flowing  into  the  main  river, 
and  found  that  our  companions  had  laid  out  some 
newly  slain  carcases  on  the  other  side.  Crossing  in 
the  canoe,  we  suddenly  perceived  the  dogs  making 
straight  for  the  meat,  and  in  hurrying  to  save  it,  we 
omitted  to  pull  the  canoe  far  enough  up  sliore;  when 
we  turned,  it  was  floating  rapidly  away  down  to  the 
main  channel.  Guns,  ammunition*  cameras,  diaries, 
and  everything  of  value  was  on  board;  in  addition 
to  .which,  the  canoe  itself  was  our  only  practicable 
means  of  transport. 

The  feverish  chase  that  followed  was  beyond 
description.  Igjugarjuk, — who,  by  the  way,  could 
not  swimr—  jobbed  me  in  a  mad  obstacle  raoe  in  and 
out  of  water,  each  of  tis  witfa  one  end  of  a  line  fastened 
roimdtliebody.  Tfiet% w&e masses  of  looseiceia  the 
fairway,  aadl  tna&aged  toswimfrom floe  to  fioe,  hatd- 
ingup  Igjugarjtik  to  each  before  making  for  the  next. 
So  we  went  on,  clambering  and  struggling  desperately 
in  pursuit.  Fortunately,  the  canoe  itself  was  checked 
in  its  progress  by  these  same  masses  of  ice;  never- 
theless, we  dared  not  relax  our  efforts.  Our  hands 
were  torn  and  bleeding  from  the  sharp  ice  crystals; 
and  when  at  last  we  reached  the  canoe  itself  and 
dragged  it  into  safety,  we  were  so  exhausted  that  we 
sank  down  helplessly  beside  it.  Another  few  yards 
and  it  would  have  been  carried  into  the  main  river, 
to  certain  destruction— and  ourselves  with  it. 


106  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

It  is  difficult  for  a  Greenlander  to  understand  how 
these  natives  here  can  give  up  and  lie  down  to  die 
in  a  country  so  rich  in  game.  But  it  is  not  laziness, 
I  fancy  the  wretched  footwear  they  use  in  summer 
has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  it.  They  have  not  the 
thick  stout  sealskin  or  walrus  hide,  but  only  light 
caribou  skin,  pleasant  enough  in  winter  on  the  cold 
dry  snow,  but  miserably  inadequate  in  the  swampy 
tundra  during  summer,  and  with  no  sort  of  wear  in  it 
over  rocky  ground;  a  couple  of  days  will  wear  through 
perfectly  new  soles. 

Late  that  night  we  reached  the  river  Kunuag. 
After  a  difficult  crossing,  we  took  leave  of  our  com- 
panions, who  with  their  kayaks  on  their  heads 
hurried  back  to  their  own  people.  We  built  a  great 
fire,  and  roasted  steaks  of  freshly  killed  meat  on  flat 
stones.  All  was  clear  ahead  now,  down  to  Baker 
Lake;  the  weather  was  fine,  and  as  sleep  is  not  so 
essential  in  summer,  we  were  soon  on  our  way  once 
more. 

It  was  slow  going  over  the  swampy  tundra,  that 
squelched  underfoot  at  every  step.  By  six  the  next 
morning  we  reached  a  group  of  three  tents,  and 
were  surprised  to  find  the  inmates  here  also  on  the 
verge  of  starvation.  We  had  the  better  part  of  two 
caribou  carcases  with  us,  and  seeing  no  reason  to 
carry  a  heavier  load  than  needed,  we  invited  the  vil- 
lage to  a  feast.  The  fine  fresh  meat  was  disposed  of 
with  remarkable  celerity,  and  I  had  once  more  an 
opportunity  of  witnessing  the  feats  of  which  an 
Eskimo  is  capable  in  this  direction.  Hunger  how- 
ever, had  by  no  means  impaired  the  spirits  qf  these 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS  107 

good  folk;  they  smiled  as  they  showed  us  their  cook- 
ing pots,  scraped  dean  and  empty  for  the  past  week. 
And  they  broke  up  their  tobacco  pipes  to  get  a  taste 
of  tobacco  after  the  heavy  meal. 

We  were  past  astonishment  when  a  gramophone 
was  produced,  and  kept  going  for  the  rest  of  the 
afternoon.  The  natives  declared,  in  sober  earnest, 
that  jazz  tunes  were  no  less  comforting  to  an  empty 
stomach  than  soothing  to  a  full  one. 

We  had  hoped  to  push  on  from  here  without 
further  delay,  but  many  obstacles  lay  between  us 
and  our  return  to  Chesterfield, — too  maay  to  recount* 
The  partial  break-up  of  winter  ice  meant  for  us  that 
progress  by  boat  and  progress  by  dog  sledge  were 
alternately  barred.  Once,  native  kayaks  which  we 
hired  were  crushed  in  the  rocky  narrows  of  a  swollen 
river.  Again,  we  had  to  cross  a  lake  on  a  block  of 
ice,  with,  our  dogs  drawing  the  whole  mass  across 
by  swimmftig  in  harness.  And  wiaen,  after  days  of 
soggy  going,  we  finally'  readied  Baker  Lake,  we 
could  not  rouse  the  people  of  the  trading  post  oat  cm 
the  island,  though  we  burned  signal  fires  for  eight 
hours  continuously.  So  we  finally  ferried  across  on 
an  ice  floe,  using  our  skis  as  paddles. 

We  found  Birket-Smith  and  Helge  Bangsted  at 
the  island,  but  they  wished  to  continue  their  botanical 
studies,  so  we  pushed  on  to  Chesterfield  without 
them.  We  met  with  more  delays  on  the  way  down 
to  the  Inlet, — chiefly  from  ice  jams, — and  not  until 
July  31  did  we  reach  our  destination. 

We  had  first  visited  Chesterfield  in  winter,  and 
passed  it  in  a  blizzard,  when  everything  was  as  arctic 


io8  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

as  could  be;  when  one's  nostrils  froze  in  the  icy 
blast  and  the  blood  fairly  hardened  in  one's  cheeks. 
Our  own  experience  had  taught  us  to  appreciate  the 
natives'  power  of  adapting  themselves  to  their  sur- 
roundings. Their  extraordinary  clothing,  of  soft 
caribou  skin  from  head  to  foot,  inside  and  out, 
enabled  not  only  the  men,  but  also  women  and 
children,  to  move  abroad  in  all  manner  of  weather; 
as  long  as  they  could  manage  to  procure  food  enough, 
the  cold  of  winter  seemed  hardly  to  affect  them  at  all. 

Coming  back  now,  in  the  summer,  we  found  all 
changed  to  a  surprising  degree.  The  handsome 
dresses  of  caribou  skin,  so  admirably  suited  to  the 
racial  type  of  the  wearers,  and  to  their  surroundings, 
had  given  place  to  the  cheap  and  vulgar  products  of 
the  trading  station.  The  men  went  about  in  jerseys 
and  readymade  slacks,  their  flowing  locks  sur- 
mounted by  a  cheap  cloth  cap,  while  the  women  had 
exchanged  their  quaint  swallow-tailed  furs,  long  boots 
and  baggy  breeches,  for  shapeless  European  dresses 
of  machine-made  stuff,  in  which  grace  and  character 
alike  were  utterly  obliterated. 

So  also  with  their  dwellings;  the  wonderful  snow 
huts,  fashioned,  as  it  were,  of  the  cold  itself  as  a 
protection  from  the  cold,  were  now  replaced  by  big 
white  canvas  tents,  which  made  the  place  look  more 
like  a  holiday  camp  than  an  Eskimo  settlement* 
And  one  could  not  go  near  them  without  finding 
one's  ears  assailed  by  the  noise  of  some  modern 
mechanical  contrivance,  either  a  gramophone  or 
a  sewing  machine. 

I  noted  now  for  the  first  time  how  oddly  these 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS  109 

quondam  inland  folk — they  were  mainly  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Baker  Lake — felt  lost  and  out  of 
their  element  here  on  the  shore  of  the  open  sea. 
Just  outside  Chesterfield  Inlet  was  a  veritable  high- 
road for  the  seal;  and  all  round  the  adjacent  Marble 
Island  the  walrus  might  be  seen  blowing  and  steaming 
at  the  surface  of  the  water;  yet  never  a  man  in  all  the 
settlement  went  out  hunting  either.  The  natives 
here,  despite  their  astonishing  agility  and  skill  with 
kayak  and  spears  among  the  turbulent  waters  of  tlie 
rivers,  were  content  now  to  let  all  this  meat  go  by, 
while  they  themselves  lived  on  tea  and  pancakes. 
The  most  they  ever  attempted  in  the  way  of  hunting 
wastolayouta  net  in  the  bay  just  outside  their  tents 
and  catch  a  few  fish. 

This  indifference  to  the  abundance  offered  them 
by  the  sea  was  not  due  to  laziness  however,  but  rather 
a  peculiarity  of  their  inland  culture  itself.  They 
could  not  <ispeese  with  their  caribou;  and  it  was  a 
principle  handed  down  through  gesemt&oes  that  OIK 
could  not  mingle  sea  bunting  with  tfaat  of  the  laad 
without  losing  the  latter  altogether. 

After  a  pleasant  two-weeks  stay  at  CSiesterfidd, 
during  which  Bkket-Smith  and  Bangsted  rejoined 
us,  and  during  which  we  received  and  sent  off  letters 
by  the  Hudson's  Bay  steamer,  Nascopie,  we  set  off 
on  the  long  journey  back  to  headquarters  at  Danish 
Island.  It  was  already  later  in  the  summer  than  I 
wished,  and  plans  whidi  we  had  hopefully  made  for 
spending  the  summer  in  useful  work  together  began 
to  grow  impracticable.  I  was  anxious  to  see  what 
the  rest  had  been  doing, — Mathiassen  and  Freuchen 


no  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

in  their  investigation  of  ancient  culture,  particularlye 
We  were  fortunate  in  getting  passage  by  motor- 
schooner  as  far  as  Repulse  Bay,  which  we  made  in 
three  days.  Here  we  should,  by  agreement,  have 
found  Peter  Freuchen  encamped  waiting  for  us  with 
the  motor  boat  we  had  built  especially  for  summer 
work.  The  migratory  ice,  however,  had  kept  him 
from  getting  out  with  it. 

We  accordingly  hired  a  whaleboat  belonging  to  an 
Eskimo  from  Southampton  Island,  who  was  known 
to  the  traders  as  "John  Ell."  As  it  turned  out,  we 
needed  him  for  various  errands  during  most  of  the 
winter  following,  so  we  grew  to  know  and  admire 
John  Ell. 

He  was  a  man  in  many  ways  unlike  the  average 
type  of  native,  having  been  educated  to  begin  with 
on  board  a  whaler,  thus  learning  not  only  to  speak 
English  fluently,  but  also  to  manage  a  boat  with 
remarkable  skill,  especially  among  the  ice.  He  was 
looked  up  to  as  a  leader  by  his  fellows,  and  was  also  a 
man  of  property,  having  a  fine  team  of  dogs  and  a 
range  of  sledges  designed  for  work  at  different 
seasons,  a  well-equipped  whaleboat,  and  furthermore, 
a  motor  boat  of  his  own.  This  last  is  uncommon 
among  the  Eskimos;  John  Ell  had  bought  it  for  75 
fox  skins.  He  carried  on  an  extensive  correspond- 
ence with  people  in  the  neighborhood,  using  the  sign 
language  invented  by  a  missionary  named  Peck, 
which  is  here  generally  employed.  And  he  kept  a 
regular  account  of  his  income  and  expenditure 
throughout  the  year.  It  was  the  more  remarkable, 
seeing  how  much  he  had  lived  and  learned  among 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS  m 

white  men,  to  find  that  lie  was  a  distinguished  anga- 
koq,  with  a  faith  in  native  magic  eqtial  to  his 
reputation. 

Winter  weather  on  land  and  ice  in  the  channel 
held  us  at  Repulse  Bay  till  September  i  ,  and  then  we 
crossed  in  a  day  as  far  as  Kurd  Channel,  Here 
again  we  were  held  up  for  twelve  days.  We  used  the 
interval  in  hunting  meat  for  our  dogs,  and  other 
employments.  Then  we  crossed  at  a  favorable 
moment  to  Vansittart  Island,  and  three  <Jays  later 
got  through  to  headquarters. 

We  found  an  empty  house.  Whereas  we  fead 
expected  a  rousing  welcome  after  our  long  absence, 
there  wasn't  even  a  letter  to  tell  us  where  our  other 
comrades  were. 

However,  Freuchen  and  the  Eskimos  were  only  out 
at  the  hunting  grounds,  and  they  hadn't  believed 
that  we  could  get  through  the  broken  ice.  We  went 
out  and  found  them*  and  our  reunion  was  as  joyous 
as  any  meeting  in  the  Arctic  is  likely  to  be  between 
Ioi3g  separated. 


MatMassen,  with  Jacob  Olsen,  was  still  at  South- 
ampton Island  studying  the  traces  of  former  Eskimo 
culture.  It  was  not  until  February  1  8,  and  only  after 
causing  us  anxiety  for  his  safety,  that  he  finally 
returned,  and  completed  the  final  retanion  of  our 
party. 

Meantime,  the  rest  of  us  were  held  at  Danish 
Island,  or  nearby,  for  most  of  the  winter,  Freuchen, 
who  started  out  in  January  for  Baffinland,  to  begin 
studies  later  to  be  carried  out  in  cxx^eration  with 
Mathiassen,  was  quickly  brought  back  with  a  bad 


H2  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

case  of  frostbite  which  made  him  temporarily  an 
invalid.  Birket-Smith  and  Bangsted  were  held  at 
headquarters  looking  after  him. 

I  was  occupied  during  the  winter  with  two  main 
tasks, — completing  my  study  and  comparison  of 
the  various  ethnographical  collections,  and  round- 
ing them  out  with  materials  secured  on  another 
visit  to  the  natives  around  Lyon  Inlet. 

With  regard  to  one  item  of  our  study,  I  felt  that  we 
had  already  secured  satisfactory  data;  namely,  the 
investigation  of  the  culture  of  the  Tunit.  Therkel 
Mathiassen's  work1  here  proved  to  be  of  greatest 
importance  to  our  study  of  the  people  and  their 
history  as  a  whole. 

There  are  no  written  sources  for  the  early  history 
of  the  Eskimo  people;  it  is  to  the  spade  that  we  must 
turn  if  we  would  learn  something  of  their  life  in  ages 
past.  We  have  to  dig  and  delve  among  the  ruins  of 
their  dwellings,  in  the  kitchen  middens  of  their 
settlements,  for  proof  of  how  they  lived  and  hunted, 
how  they  were  housed  and  clad.  It  is  often  a  labo- 
rious task,  but  not  less  interesting  on  that  account. 
And  it  was  one  of  the  principal  tasks  of  the  Fifth 
Thule  Expedition  to  investigate,  by  means  of  archaeo- 
logical excavations,  the  history  and  development  of 
the  Eskimo  people,  and  their  migrations  into  Green- 
land. Our  work  in  this  field  has  brought  to  light 
some  six  or  seven  thousand  items  which  afford  a  good 

1  Space  forbids  the  inclusion  here  of  my  companions1  reports  in  full, 
and  I  can  give  but  the  briefest  indication  of  their  main  features.  Both 
Freuchen's  and  Therkel  Mathiassen's  reports  are  published— or  shortly 
to  be  published — in  English  elsewhere.  The  pages  here  following  are 
taken  from  Therkel  Mathiassen's  own  text. 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS  113 

idea  as  to  the  mode  of  life  prevailing  among  the 
Central  Eskimos  here  in  those  distant  ages. 

Naujan  lies  on  the  northern  shore  of  Repulse  Bay, 
a  little  to  the  east  of  the  trading  station.  The  name, 
which  means  "the  place  of  the  young  seamews,"  is 
taken  from  a  steep  bird  cliff  on  the  banks  of  a  small 
lake.  From  the  lake,  a  valley  runs  down  towards 
the  shore,  where  it  opens  out  into  a  bay,  and  it  is 
in  this  valley,  just  south  of  the  lake,  that  the  great 
settlement  of  Naujan  existed  in  ancient  times. 

The  Eskimos  of  the  present  day  in  these  regions 
use  only  snow  huts  in  winter;  it  was  the  more  sur- 
prising therefore  to  come  upon  remains  of  quite 
a  different  type  of  house.  We  found  at  Naujan  a 
whole  little  township  of  these  houses,  constructed  of 
stone,  turf,  and  the  bones  of  whales.  They  were 
built  so  as  to  be  partly  underground  and  must  have 
been  far  more  substantial  and  warm,  though  less 
hygienic  perhaps,  than  the  light,  cool,  healthy  snow 
huts  of  today.  Various  features  placed  it  beyond 
question  that  at  the  time  when  these  houses  wene 
built,  the  land  must  have  lain  some  ten  metres  lower 
than  it  does  now;  and  this,  too,  explains  why  the 
settlement  was  found  at  some  distance  from  what  is 
now  the  beach,  instead  of  practically  on  it  as  is  custo- 
mary. Similarly,  in  confirmation  of  our  theory,  we 
found,  on  a  little  island  near  by,  a  pair  of  kayak 
stands — pillars  of  stone  on  which  the  skirt  kayaks  are 
laid  to  be  out  of  reach  of  the  dogs — some  15  metres 
up  from  sea;,  actually,  of  course,  they  would  have 
been  built  at  the  water's  edge,  to  save  hauling,  up  and 
down. 


II4  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

The  houses  themselves  had  fallen  to  pieces  long 
since,  and  the  remains  were  scattered,  weatherworn 
and  overgrown  with  grass  and  moss  to  such  an  extent 
that  our  excavations  gave  but  a  poor  idea  of  their 
original  appearance.  The  implements  and  objects 
found  among  the  ruins,  however,  gave  an  excellent 
view  of  the  culture  of  the  period  from  which  they  were 
derived.  The  materials  comprised  bone,  walrus 
tusk  and  caribou  antler,  flint,  slate  and  soapstone, 
whalebone,  some  wood,  and  occasionally  metal,  this 
last  in  the  form  of  cold  hammered  copper  (probably 
obtained  by  barter  from  the  Eskimos  of  the  west), 
with  a  single  fragment  of  meteoric  iron  forming  the 
point  of  a  harpoon. 

It  is  of  course  impossible  to  mention  more  than  a 
very  few  of  the  finds  here;  often,  too,  the  most 
insignificant  objects  to  all  outward  seeming  prove 
most  important  from  the  scientific  point  of  view. 
Among  our  most  valuable  finds,  for  instance,  were 
three  odd  broken  fragments  of  rough  earthenware 
vessels.  These  are  only  known  to  exist  among  the 
Alaskan  Eskimos,  and  the  finding  of  them  here  was 
of  importance;  few,  however,  would  have  attached 
any  value  to  those  three  dirty  scraps  of  pottery. 

And  now  as  to  the  age  of  this  Naujan  material. 
We  may  at  once  assert  that  nothing  was  found  which 
could  suggest  any  intercourse  with  Europeans. 
There  were  no  glass  beads — which  are  ordinarily  the 
first  thing  the  Eskimos  procure,  and  always  found  in 
their  villages — and  the  only  fragment  of  iron  found 
was  of  meteoric  origin.  This  at  once  carries  us  back 
300  years.  Beyond  this,  we  have  only  the  alter- 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS  115 

ation  in  the  level  of  the  land  to  fall  back  upon.  It 
takes  a  considerable  period,  of  course,  for  the  land 
to  rise  ten  metres,  but  there  is  no  definite  standard 
by  which  to  measure  the  lapse  of  time  involved. 
In  the  north  of  Sweden,  for  instance,  the  land  rises 
i  metre  in  a  hundred  years;  allowing  the  same  rate  of 
progress  here,  this  would  give  us  an  age  of  1000 
years — but  this  is,  of  course,  mere  guesswork. 

As  to  the  people  who  lived  here  in  those  days, 
they  were  beyond  doubt  genuine  Eskimos;  they  lived 
on  the  shore  in  regular  winter  dwellings,  drove  dog 
sledges,  and  hunted  whale,  seal  and  walrus,  besides 
bear  and  caribou;  they  trapped  foxes,  and  caught 
salmon.  They  had  at  any  rate  no  lack  of  meat,  to 
judge  from  the  enormous  quantities  of  bones,  which 
indeed,  almost  smothered  the  remains  of  the  houses 
themselves*  If  we  ask  the  present  inhabitants 
of  these  regions,  the  Aivilik,  as  to  the  folk  who  dwelt 
in  these  now  ruined  houses,  they  will  say,  it  was  the 
TttBit.  These  Tunit  were  a  mce  of  big,  strong  men 
who  Eved  in  permanent  dwellings  and  hunted  whale 
and  walrus;  the  men  wore  bearskin  breeches  and  the 
women  long  sealskin  boots  just  like  the  Polar  Eskimos 
of  today.  When  the  Aivilik  settled  on  the  coast, 
the  Tunit  moved  away  to  the  northward;  only  on  the 
inaccessible  Southampton  Island  did  a  party  remain, 
and  the  Sadlermiut,  who  died  out  here  in  1903,  were 
the  last  descendants  of  the  Tunit  in  the  country. 
Thus  the  Aivilik  tradition,  and  it  agrees  in  all 
essentials  with  the  results  of  our  investigations. 

For  on  comparing  these  Tunit  of  ancient  Naujan 
with  the  present  inhabitants,  we  find  a  great  differ- 


Ii6  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

ence  between  them.  The  Naujan  Eskimos  lived 
on  the  shore,  hunted  the  whale,  and  built  their  houses 
from  the  skeletons.  The  Aivilik  live  in  snow  huts, 
and  spend  most  of  the  year  hunting  caribou  up  in 
the  interior.  Many  of  the  implements  and  utensils 
in  use  among  the  Naujan  folk,  such  as  the  bola,  the 
bird  dart,  and  earthenware  vessels,  are  unknown 
among  the  Aivilik;  the  latter,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  others  unknown  to  the  ancients,  such  as  combs, 
big  ladles  made  of  musk  ox  horn,  and  toggles  for  dog 
harness.  And  on  examining  the  types  of  implement 
in  use  among  the  two  peoples,  many  distinct  points  of 
difference  are  found. 

Where  did  the  Naujan  Eskimos  come  from,  and 
what  became  of  them? 

It  soon  becomes  apparent  that  they  link  up  in  two 
directions  across  the  Eskimo  region;  with  Alaska  on 
the  one  hand  and  Greenland  on  the  other.  At  Thule, 
in  northern  Greenland,  a  find  has  been  made,  the 
oldest  of  any  extent  from  the  whole  of  Greenland, 
which  points  to  precisely  the  same  type  of  culture 
as  that  which  we  found  at  Naujan;  and  we  have 
therefore  called  it  the  Thule  type.  Similar  finds 
have  been  made  both  in  west  and  north  Greenland, 
and  the  Polar  Eskimos  of  the  present  day  are  very 
much  like  these  Thule  folk  in  many  respects.  The 
Greenland  Eskimos,  then,  must  have  passed  through 
these  central  regions  at  a  time  when  they  were  still 
inhabited  by  the  Thule  folk. 

Looking  now  to  the  westward,  we  find  in  Alaska  a 
race  of  big  men,  who  hunt  the  whale,  live  in  per- 
manent dwellings  on  the  coast,  use  the  bola,  make 


BETWEEN  TWO  WINTERS  117 

earthenware,  and  have  almost  the  same  types  of 
implements  generally  as  those  we  found  at  Naujan; 
old  finds  from  Alaska  also  exhibit  even  more  marked 
resemblance  to  the  Naujan  type.  The  Thule  folk 
then,  must  have  come  from  Alaska,  this  is  beyond 
question.  They  spread  in  a  mighty  wave  from  west 
to  east,  reaching  right  across  to  Greenland.  At  some 
time  now  far  distant  there  was  a  more  or  less  uniform 
type  of  culture  prevailing  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  Eskimo  region;  that  which  we  now  call  the  Thule 
type;  then,  in  the  central  districts,  an  advance  took 
place  of  people  from  the  interior  represented  by  the 
present-day  Central  Eskimo:  the  Aivilik,  Netsilik, 
Copper  Eskimos  and  Baffinlanders.  These  people, 
with  their  culture  based  on  snow  huts  and  caribou 
hunting,  made  their  way  down  to  the  coast,  where 
their  mode  of  life  was  gradually  adapted  to  some 
extent,  so  as  to  include  the  hunting  of  marine  anfmals, 
while  the  ancient  Thule  culture  disappeared  from 
the  central  regions  where  now  only  the  numerous 
ruins  of  stone  and  bone  houses  remain  as  evidence  of 
the  culture  of  earlier  times.  Thus  too  we  have  an 
explanation  of  many  otherwise  inexplicable  simi- 
larities between  the  two  topographical  extremities 
of  Eskimo  culture;  Alaska  and  Greenland;  features 
found  in  the  extreme  east  and  in  the  extreme  west, 
but  lacking  in  the  central  region. 


CHAPTER  IX 

FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR 

Y  the  middle  of  January,  I  had  the  ethnographical 
collections  in  shape  so  that  I  could  leave  Danish 
Island  for  good.  But  we  still  needed  a  few  items. 
I  wanted  a  few  more  skin  dresses  to  round  out  the 
collection,  and  I  wished  to  make  a  final  study  of  the 
spiritual  beliefs  of  the  Eskimos  of  the  region. 
Accordingly,  I  set  oS  for  the  hunting  camp  at  the 
mouth  of  Lyon  Inlet,  to  visit  my  old  friend  Aua. 

Aua's  hunting  camp  lay  midway  out  in  Lyon 
Inlet;  I  reached  it  late  one  afternoon,  just  as  the 
setting  sun  was  gilding  the  domes  of  the  snow  huts. 

It  was  known  that  I  was  on  the  way,  and  above 
each  hut  waved  a  little  white  flag — a  sign  that  the 
inmates  had  relinquished  their  old  heathen  faith  and 
become  Christians.  As  I  drove  up,  men,  women  and 
children  trooped  out  and  formed  up  in  line  outside 
Aua's  hut,  and  as  soon  as  I  had  reined  in  my  team, 
the  whole  party  began  singing  a  hymn.  The  tune 
was  so  unlike  what  they  were  accustomed  to  in  their 
own  pagan  chants  that  they  bungled  it  a  little,  but 
there  was  no  mistaking  the  earnestness  and  pious 
feeling  which  inspired  it.  There  was  something  very 
touching  in  such  a  greeting;  these  poor  folk  had 

118 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  119 

plainly  found  in  the  new  faith  a  refuge  that  meant  a 
great  deal  in  their  lives. 

When  it  was  over,  they  stepped  forward  one  by  one 
and  shook  hands*  And  here  I  could  not  but  recall  my 
first  meeting  with  these  same  people  a  year  ago,  at 
Cape  Elizabeth.  Then,  they  had  come  leaping  and 
capering  round  me  in  an  outburst  of  unrestrained 
natural  feeling ;  now,  all  was  ceremonial,  and  solemn  to 
an  almost  painful  degree.  It  was  not  long,  however, 
before  this  wore  off,  and  the  old  easy  merriment 
showed  forth  again.  The  carcase  of  a  seal  was 
brought  out  and  thrown  to  the  dogs,  and  while  they 
were  busy  with  it,  I  was  regaled  with  the  latest  news. 
Then  my  sledge  was  hoisted  up  onto  a  stand  built 
of  blocks  of  snow,  and  I  myself  invited  indoors  to 
thaw.  Aua's  wife,  Orulo,  good  friendly  soul,  had  a 
fine  big  bowl  of  steaming  hot  tea  for  me,  and  when 
this  had  driven  out  some  of  the  cold  I  could  settle 
down  at  ease  among  my  old  frie&ds. 

It  was  the  most  difficult  time  of  the  year  just  now; 
the  stores  o£  meat  accumulated  during  summer  had 
been  used  up,  and  it  was  a  question  of  pixxnaring 
fresh  supplies  for  men  and  dogs,  from  day  to  day. 
Seal  were  hunted  now  either  at  the  breathing  holes  or 
in  the  open  water  beyond  the  edge  of  the  ice.  The 
weather  was  rough  and  stormy,  snow  falling  every 
day,  and  the  thermometer  rarely  above  minus  5O°C. 
The  days  were  short,  and  in  order  to  make  the  most 
of  them,  the  hunters  set  off  before  daylight  and  re- 
turned after  dark.  All  meat  brought  in  was  cut  up 
and  distributed  at  once  throughout  the  camp,  and  as 
there  was  generally  no  more  than  would  suffice  for 


120  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

one  day,  the  arrival  of  the  next  instalment  was  looked 
forward  to  with  anxiety  literally  equal  to  that  with 
which  hungry  folk  look  forward  to  a  meal. 

The  men  had  little  rest  these  days.  It  is  a  weary 
business  to  be  out  for  ten  hours  at  a  stretch,  first 
searching  about  to  find  the  blowhole  of  a  seal,  and 
having  found  it,  to  stand  motionless  in  the  driving 
snow  waiting  for  the  seal  to  come  up  to  breathe.  A 
seal  has  always  a  number  of  blowholes  open  at  once, 
and  it  might  often  be  hours  before  it  appeared  at  the 
one  actually  under  observation.  No  wonder  then, 
that  the  hunters  were  stiff  and  sore  by  the  time  they 
returned.  Throwing  off  all  but  their  innermost 
clothing,  they  threw  themselves  down  on  the  bench 
in  the  warmth  of  the  hut,  while  the  women  busied 
themselves  cutting  up  the  carcases  into  juicy  red 
fillets  edged  with  rich  yellowish  blubber.  Then, 
when  the  pots  began  to  boil,  came  the  reward  of  the 
day's  toil,  in  the  shape  of  a  steaming  cup  of  thick 
blood-soup.  The  next  course  was  meat,  speared  up 
from  the  cauldron  on  long  bone  skewers,  and  dumped 
down  upon  a  wooden  tray  enriched  with  the  juices 
of  many  a  former  meal.  A  sense  of  warmth  and 
comfort  spread  and  grew,  the  little  triumphs  or 
disappointments  of  the  day  were  recounted  with 
good  humor;  material  wants  were  satisfied  for  the 
time  being,  and  peace  and  plenty  reigned. 

These  evenings,  when  we  lay  stretched  at  ease 
after  a  hearty  meal,  and  the  most  taciturn  had 
thawed  into  some  degree  of  geniality,  were  the  times 
I  most  looked  forward  to  for  converse  with  my  hosts. 

In  the  collecting  of  folk  lore,  one  is  altogether 


MTTEQ  CUTTING  UP  A  NEWLY  CAPTURED  SEAL 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  121 

dependent  upon  the  character  and  temper  of  one's 
sources;  it  is  essential  to  have  native  authorities  not 
only  qualified  in  regard  to  knowledge  of  their  subject 
but  also  gifted  with  the  right  appreciation  of  it 
themselves.  They  must  be  reliable,  so  that  one  can 
listen  without  criticising  all  the  time,  and  one  should 
if  possible  be  on  friendly  terms  with  them  throughout. 
Aua  and  his  wife  Orulo  eminently  fulfilled  these 
conditions;  we  were  excellent  friends,  and  the  two 
old  folk,  pooling  the  experience  and  learning  of  their 
respective  lives,  combined  to  furnish  a  mine  of 
information.  What  one  did  not  know  the  other  did. 
The  reader  will  recollect  Aua  from  a  previous  chapter, 
and  the  account  of  his  snow  palace  at  Cape  Elizabeth; 
it  was  he  who  then  gave  me  the  accounts  of  native 
belief  as  to  the  life  after  death,  and  the  methods 
of  native  wizards  in  their  spirit  flights  and  the  like. 
In  addition  to  Aua  himself,  there  were  three  other 
wizards  in  the  camp,  differing  considerably  in  type 
and  character.  I  endeavored  throughout  as  far 
as  possible  to  get  them  to  take  part  in  the 
conversation,  in  order  to  obtain  as  varied  a  general 
view  as  possible.  One  of  them  was  a  young  man 
named  Anarqaoq.  He  was  not  particularly  skilful 
as  a  hunter,  and  had  been  more  or  less  of  a  vagabond 
all  his  life.  He  had  come  originally  from  one  of  the 
Netsilik  tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  King  William's 
Land,  where  his  first  introduction  to  the  practice  of 
magic  had  taken  place.  He  was  a  man  of  a  very 
nervous  temperament,  easily  influenced,  and  his 
speciality,  as  one  might  say,  consisted  mainly  in  the 
remarkable  visions  which  came  to  him  as  soon  as  he 


122          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

was  out  alone  caribou  hunting  in  the  interior.  His 
imagination  peopled  the  whole  of  nature  with 
fantastic  spirit  creatures  that  came  to  him  either 
while  he  slept,  or  even  when  fully  awake  and  engaged 
on  his  normal  occupations.  In  some  way  he  could 
not  explain,  these  spirits  gave  him  an  enhanced 
power  of  penetrating  into  the  realms  of  mystery;  and 
though  his  own  accounts  of  such  experiences  often 
appeared  naive  to  say  the  least,  they  sufficed  to 
impress  his  fellows  with  a  sense  of  his  importance  as 
one  familiar  with  the  unknown  powers.  I  gave  htm 
a  pencil  and  paper  one  day  and  asked  him  to  draw 
some  of  these  " visions."  After  some  hesitation  he 
complied.  And  I  could  not  but  feel  that  he  was 
himself  convinced  of  their  reality;  he  did  not  simply 
sit  down  and  draw  the  things  at  once,  but  would 
remain  for  some  time  manifestly  under  the  influence 
of  strong  emotion,  trembling  often  to  such  a  degree 
that  he  could  hardly  draw  at  all. 

It  is  difficult  indeed  for  the  ordinary  civilized 
mentality  to  appreciate  the  complexity  of  the  native 
mind  in  its  relations  with  the  supernatural;  a  "wiz- 
ard" may  resort  to  the  most  transparent  trickwork 
and  yet  be  thoroughly  in  earnest.  Anarqaoq  himself, 
afforded  an  instance  of  this.  One  evening  a  child 
came  in  crying,  but  unable  to  say  what  was  the 
matter — a  not  uncommon  happening  with  children; 
as  everyone  knows.  Our  wizard,  however,  grasped 
and  utilized  the  opportunity.  He  dashed  out  into 
the  darkness  and  returned  some  time  later  covered 
with  blood  and  with  great  rents  in  his  clothing, 
having  fought  and  defeated  the  "evil  Spirits"  that 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  123 

were  seeking  to  harm  the  child.  No  one  suspected 
that  he  had  snatched  up  a  lump  of  half  frozen  seal's 
blood  from  the  kitchen,  and  with  this,  and  a  few 
self-inflicted  wounds  upon  his  garments,  supplied 
the  needful  evidence  to  impress  his  fellow  villagers 
with  the  truth  of  his  story. 

Another  wizard  was  Unaleq,  also  a  Netsilik.  I 
chose  out  these  two  in  particular  for  occasional 
interrogation  because  the  Igdlulik,  to  which  tribe  Aua 
himself  belonged,  regarded  the  Netsilik  as  their 
inferiors,  and  Aua  was  thus  impelled  to  be  more 
communicative  himself. 

Unaleq  was,  I  think,  the  most  trustful  and 
optimistic  soul  I  have  ever  met.  Actually  one  of  the 
poorest  and  most  unskilful  hunters  for  some  distance 
round,  he  was  nevertheless  convinced  that  his 
"helping  spirits "  had  endowed  him  with  super- 
natural powers  enabling  him  to  assist  his  fellows.  I 
got  him  to  draw  these  spirits  for  me,  as  A&arqaoq 
had  done,  though  again,  not  without  considerable 
difficulty,  despite  the  tempting  nature  of  the  prize 
offered — a  knife  bigger  and  brighter  and  sharper 
than  he  had  ever  owned  in  his  life.  When  he  had 
finished,  I  assured  him  that  he  would  be  successful 
in  his  hunting  on  the  following  day,  as  I  had  dreamt 
I  saw  him  catching  a  seal.  Whether  due  to  laziness 
or  lack  of  skill,  he  had  caught  not  a  single  seal  all  that 
winter.  But  on  the  following  day  he  did.  The 
confidence  with  which  my  dream  inspired  him  had, 
perhaps,  encouraged  him  to  effort  beyond  his  usual 
capacity;  at  any  rate,  he  brought  home  a  seal. 

And  finally,  there  was  Aua's  brother,  Ivaluartjuk, 


124          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

whose  contribution  to  our  stock  of  legends  and 
myths  was  of  the  greatest  value.  We  met  him  for 
the  first  time  at  Repulse  Bay.  He  was  a  duly  quali- 
fied wizard,  but  rarely  practised  his  art,  his  speciality 
being  folk  tales,  of  which  over  fifty  were  written 
down  from  his  dictation.  Space  forbids  the  inclusion 
of  further  stories  at  length,  but  there  is  one  important 
point  in  this  connection  which  must  be  noted,  to  wit, 
the  similarity,  or  indeed,  identity  of  many  of  the 
Canadian  Eskimo  folk  tales  with  those  already  known 
from  the  Eskimos  of  Greenland.  A  few  instances 
have  been  noted  in  the  foregoing;  and  the  further 
evidence  afforded  by  this  later  material  places  the 
question  of  kinship  beyond  all  doubt.  The  following 
are  a  few  of  the  themes  in  the  stories  told  by  Ivaluart- 
juk  having  counterparts  or  very  close  variants  in 
different  parts  of  Greenland: 

The  coming  of  men:  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
world,  women  went  out  and  found  children  sprawling 
among  the  bushes.  Later,  they  grew  to  be  many 
throughout  the  world. 

Day  and  night.  In  earliest  times,  all  was  dark; 
the  fox  wished  it  to  be  dark  that  it  might  steal  from 
the  dwellings  of  men.  But  the  raven  could  not  see  to 
find  food  in  the  dark,  and  wished  for  light.  And 
there  was  light. 

The  raven  that  married  a  goose,  and  was  drowned 
when  the  birds  flew  over  the  sea. 

The  fatherless  boy  who  was  ill-used  by  his  fellows, 
till  a  spirit  (the  moon)  took  pity  on  him  and  made 
him  a  strong  man,  when  he  returned  and  took 
vengeance. 

Igimarajugjuk,  who  ate  his  wives. 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  125 

The  soul  that  lived  in  the  bodies  of  all  beasts. 

Sun  and  moon — brother  and  sister  who  loved  each 
other,  till  the  sister,  ashamed,  fled  away  by  night, 
the  brother  in  pursuit.  Both  carried  torches,  but 
the  one  went  out,  hence  the  faint  glow  of  the  moon 
compared  with  the  sun. 

The  man  disturbed  in  liis  hunting  by  children  at 
play;  he  shuts  them  up  in  a  mountain  where  they 
starve  to  death.1 

There  are,  of  course,  numerous  themes  common  to 
the  folklore  of  many  different  countries  and  races, 
so  that  the  subject  itself  does  not  always  count  for 
much.  But  in  the  case  of  these  stories  we  often 
find,  not  only  dose  resemblance  in  points  of  detail, 
but  precisely  identical  words  in  the  dialogue. 

Aua  of  course,  as  a  wizard  himself,  was  an  author- 
ity not  wily  on  folklore  and  customs  generally,  but 
more  especially  on  all  matters  connected  with  the 
supernatural,  as  well  as  the  complicated  rites  and 
observances  coming  under  the  head  of  tabu.  His 
account  of  the  origin  of  his  own  profession  is  worth 
noting.  Briefly,  it  was  as  follows: 

In  very  early  times  there  were  no  wizards,  and 
people  generally  were  ignorant  of  many  things  per- 
taining to  their  welfare.  Then  it  came  about  that 
there  was  great  famine  at  Igdlulik,  and  many  died 
of  starvation.  One  day,  many  being  assembled  in 
one  house,  a  man  there  present  declared  that  he 
would  go  down  to  the  Mother  of  the  Sea.  None  of 
those  present  knew  what  he  meant  by  that.  But  he 

XA  representative  collection  of  these  Greenland  stories  is  given  in 
Eskimo  Folk  Tales,  by  Enud  Rasmussen  and  W.  Worster,  London, 
GyldendaL 


126  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

insisted,  and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  hide  behind 
the  skins,  as  he  was  about  to  undertake  something 
for  the  good  of  all.  They  allowed  him  to  do  so,  and 
presently,  pulling  the  skins  aside,  they  saw  that  he 
was  already  almost  gone,  only  the  soles  of  his  feet 
remaining  above  ground.  It  is  not  known  what  in- 
spired him  to  do  this  thing,  but  some  say  he  was 
visited  by  spirits  that  came  to  him  out  in  the  great 
solitude.  And  he  went  down  to  the  Mother  of  the 
Sea,  and  brought  back  her  good  will  and  the  grant  of 
game  for  the  hunters,  so  that  thenceforward  there 
was  no  longer  dearth,  but  great  abundance  of  food, 
and  all  were  happy  once  more.  Since  then,  the 
angakoqs,  have  learned  much  more  about  hidden 
things,  and  aided  their  fellows  in  many  ways.  They 
have  too  their  own  sacred  speech,  which  is  not  to  be 
used  for  common  things. 

A  young  man  wishing  to  become  an  angakoq  must 
first  handover  some  of  his  possessions  to  his  instructor. 
At  Igdlulik  it  was  customary  to  give  a  tent  pole,  wood 
being  scarce  in  these  regions.  A  gull's  wing  was  at- 
tached to  the  pole,  as  a  sign  that  the  novice  wished  to 
learn  to  fly.  He  had  further  to  confess  any  breach 
of  tabu  which  he  might  have  committed,  and  then,  re- 
tiring behind  a  curtain  withhis  instructor  submitted  to 
the  extraction  of  the  "soul"  from  his  eyes,  heart  and 
vitals,  which  would  then  be  brought  by  magic  means 
into  contact  with  those  beings  destined  to  become  his 
helping  spirits,  to  the  end  that  he  might  later  meet 
them  without  fear.  The  ultimate  initiation  always 
took  place  far  from  all  human  dwelling ;  only  in  the 
great  solitude  was  it  possible  to  approach  the  spirits. 
Furthermore,  it  was  essential  that  the  novice  should 
start  young;  some,  indeed,  were  entered  to  the  pro- 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  127 

fession  before  they  were  born.  Aua  himself  was  one 
of  these,  his  mother  declaring  that  her  coming  child 
was  one  that  should  be  different  from  his  fellows. 
His  birth  was  attended  by  various  remarkable 
features,  special  rites  were  observed,  and  strict 
discipline  imposed  on  him  during  childhood  and  early 
youth;  " nevertheless,  though  all  was  thus  prepared 
for  me,  I  tried  in  vain  to  become  an  angakoq  by 
the  ordinary  methods  of  instruction."  Famous 
wizards  were  approached  and  propitiated  with  gifts, 
but  all  in  vain.  At  last,  without  knowing  how, 
he  perceived  that  a  change  had  come  over  him,  a  great 
glow  as  of  intense  light  pervaded  all  his  being  (this 
is  a  recurrent  feature  in  the  process)  and  a  feeling  of 
inexpressible  joy  cameover  him,  andheburst  into  song. 

"But  now/'  he  went  on,  "I  am  a  Christian,  and  so 
I  have  sent  away  all  my  helping  spirits;  sent  them 
up  to  my  sister  in  Baffin  Land." 

Occasionally,  the  spirits  themselves  lay  hold  of  a 
man  aad  of  their  own  accord  invest  him  with  super- 
sati&al  powers;  this  is  generally  reckoned  as  a  pain- 
ful process,  attended  by  terrifying  phenomena. 

It  is  the  business  of  an  angakoq  to  heal  the  sick, 
to  protect  the  souls  of  his  fellows  against  the 
machinations  of  hostile  wizards,  to  intercede  with  the 
Mother  of  the  Sea  when  seal  are  scarce,  and  to  see 
that  traditional  customs  are  properly  observed. 
Infantile  diseases,  for  instance,  are  generally  reckoned 
as  due  to  some  breach  of  tabu  on  the  part  of  the 
mother;  famine  may  likewise  be  sent  as  a  punishment 
for  similar  neglect,  and  the  angakoq  has  then  to 
find  and  persuade  the  culprit  to  confession. 


128  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Such  manifestations  as  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
witnessing  myself  were,  I  must  confess,  disappointing 
to  the  critical  observer.  Acquainted  as  he  would 
be  with  his  neighbors'  life  and  doings,  it  was  not 
difficult  for  the  angakoq  to  hit  upon  something  done 
or  left  undone  by  one  or  another.  The  trance-like 
state  into  which  he  cast  himself  was  not  impressive 
in  itself,  and  as  for  the  spirits  supposed  to  be  present, 
one  can  only  say  they  did  not  make  their  presence 
felt.  The  wizard  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  hut 
with  his  eyes  closed,  talking  in  a  strained,  unnatural 
voice;  the  rushing  of  mighty  wings,  which  in  the  old 
stories  accompanies  such  spiritual  visitations,  was 
conspicuous  by  its  absence, 

I  had  frequently  brought  the  conversation  round 
to  the  subject  of  tabu  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
the  purpose  of  these  highly  complicated  and 
apparently  meaningless  observances;  this  thing  in- 
sisted on,  and  that  strictly  forbidden.  But  here 
lay  the  difficulty.  Everyone  knew,  and  all  were 
unanimously  agreed,  as  to  what  must  be  done  or 
avoided  in  any  given  situation,  but  as  to  the  why 
and  the  wherefore,  none  could  advance  any  explan- 
ation whatever.  They  seemed,  indeed,  to  regard  it 
as  unreasonable  on  my  part  to  demand,  not  only  a 
statement,  but  a  justification,  of  their  religious  rites 
and  ceremonies,  Aua  was  as  usual  the  one  I  mainly 
questioned,  and  one  evening,  when  I  had  been 
endeavoring  to  extract  some  more  positive  inform- 
ation on  this  head,  he  suddenly  rose  to  his  feet  and 
invited  me  to  step  outside. 

It  was  twilight,  the  brief  day  was  almost  at  an  end, 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  129 

but  the  moon  was  up,  and  one  could  see  the  storm- 
riven  clouds  racing  over  the  sky;  every  now  and  then 
a  gust  of  snow  came  whirling  down.  Aua  pointed 
out  over  the  ice,  where  the  snow  swept  this  way 
and  that  in  whirling  clouds.  "Look,"  he  said 
impressively,  "snow  and  stonn;  ill  weather  for 
hunting*  And  yet  we  must  hunt  for  our  daily  food; 
why?  Why  must  there  be  storms  to  hinder  us  when 
we  are  seeking  meat  for  ourselves  and  those  we  love?  " 

Why? 

Two  of  the  hunters  were  just  coming  in  after  a 
hard  day's  watching  on  the  ice;  they  walked  wearily, 
stopping  or  stooping  every  now  and  then  in  the  wind 
and  the  snow.  Neither  had  made  any  catch  that 
day;  their  watching  had  been  in  vain. 

Why? 

I  could  only  shake  my  head.  Aua  led  me  again, 
this  time  to  the  bouse  of  Kttvdlo,  next  to  our  own. 
The  lamp  bttmad  with  the  tmiesk  glow,  giving  out  no 
heat  at  all;  a  couple  of  chfldrea  cowered  shivering  in 
a  copier,  huddled  together  tmder  a  skin  rug.  AndAua 
re&ewed  his  merciless  interrogation:  "Why  should 
aH  be  chill  and  comfortless  in  this  little  home? 
Kuvdlo  has  been  out  hunting  since  early  morning;  if 
he  had  caught  a  seal,  as  he  surely  deserved,  for  his 
pains,  the  lamp  would  be  burning  bright  and  warm, 
his  wife  would  be  sitting  smiling  beside  it,  without 
fear  of  scarcity  for  the  morrow;  the  children  would  be 
playing  merrily  in  the  warmth  and  light,  glad  to  be 
alive.  Why  should  it  not  be  so?  " 

Why? 

Again  I  could  make  no  answer.    And  Aua  took  me 


I3o          A  CROSS  ARCTIC  A  MERICA 

to  a  little  hut  apart,  where  his  aged  sister,  Natseq, 
who  was  ill,  lay  all  alone.  She  looked  thin  and  worn, 
and  too  weak  even  to  brighten  up  at  our  coming. 
For  days  past  she  had  suffered  from  a  painful  cough 
that  seemed  to  come  from  deep  down  in  the  lungs; 
it  was  evident  she  had  not  long  to  live. 

And  for  the  third  time  Aua  looked  me  in  the  face 
and  said:  "Why  should  it  be  so?  Why  should  we 
human  beings  suffer  pain  and  sickness?  All  fear  it, 
all  would  avoid  it  if  they  could.  Here  is  this  old 
sister  of  mine,  she  has  done  no  wrong  that  we  can  see, 
but  lived  her  many  years  and  given  birth  to  good 
strong  children,  yet  now  she  must  suffer  pain  at  the 
ending  of  her  days?  " 

Why?    Why? 

After  this  striking  object  lesson,  we  returned  to  the 
hut,  and  renewed  our  interrupted  conversation  with 
the  others. 

"You  see/'  observed  Aua,  "even  you  cannot 
answer  when  we  ask  you  why  life  is  as  it  is.  And  so 
it  must  be.  Our  customs  all  come  from  life  and  are 
directed  towards  life;  we  cannot  explain,  we  do  not 
believe  in  this  or  that;  but  the  answer  lies  in  what  I 
have  just  shown  you. 

"We  fear! 

"We  fear  the  elements  with  which  we  have  to  fight 
HI  their  fury  to  wrest  out  food  from  land  and  sea. 

"We  fear  cold  and  famine  in  our  snow  huts. 

"We  fear  the  sickness  that  is  daily  to  be  seen 
amongst  us.  Not  death,  but  the  suffering. 

"We  fear  the  souls  of  the  dead,  of  human 
animal  alike. 


fi 
o 


H 


B 

0 


B 

55 
D 

8 

0 
D 

o 

J* 


o 

B 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  131 

"We  fear  the  spirits  of  earth  and  air. 

"And  therefore  our  fathers,  taught  by  their 
fathers  before  them,  guarded  themselves  about  with 
all  these  old  rules  and  customs,  which  are  built  upon 
the  experience  and  knowledge  of  generations.  We 
know  not  how  nor  why,  but  we  obey  them  that  we 
may  be  suffered  to  live  in  peace,  And  for  all  our 
angakoqs  and  their  knowledge  of  hidden  things,  we 
yet  know  so  little  that  we  fear  everything  eise.  We 
fear  the  things  we  see  about  us,  and  tfee  things  we 
know  from  the  stories  and  myths  of  our  forefathers. 
Therefore  we  hold  by  our  customs  and  observe  all 
the  rules  of  tabu/1 

Aua's  explanation  was  reasonable  enough  from  his 
point  of  view.  There  was  no  more  to  be  said. 

But  I  will  endeavor  now  to  give  a  brief  summary 
of  the  leading  principles  in  the  system  of  tabu,  with 
its  ordinances  and  pix^MMtians. 

It  is  to  begin  witfa  wy  lai^ely  a  matter  o£ 
propitiatory  sites  and  ceremooies  attending  the 
treatment  of  the  Atwmalg  killed;  preparing  food,  skins, 
ete.  Here,  there  is  a  fundamental  distinction 
between  land  game  and  the  products  of  the  sea. 
The  fauna  of  each  has  its  own  distinct  origin,  and  it 
is  believed  that  any  contact  between  the  two  is 
offensive  to  both,  involving  punishment  of  the  person 
responsible.  The  caribou  of  the  land  have  their 
"mother,"  as  the  seal  and  walrus  together  have 
theirs,  and  the  two  must  never  be  confused. 

Then  it  is  a  matter  of  faith  that  all  living  creatures 
have  souls;  and  the  souls  of  animals  slain  for  food 
or  other  useful  purpose  by  man  are  affected  by  the 


132  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

manner  in  which  their  bodies  are  treated  after 
death;  even,  indeed,  by  the  manner  of  their  killing. 
There  are  a  host  of  little  apparently  trivial  things 
that  must  be  done  or  must  on  no  account  be  done,  -in 
connection  with  hunting,  cooking,  making  clothes 
and  the  like;  and  they  are  regarded  so  much  as  a 
matter  of  course  that  it  is  difficult,when  living  among 
the  natives  and  observing  them,  to  pick  out  this  or 
that  little  matter  and  get  at  the  purpose  underlying 
it.  The  whole  system  is  further  complicated  by 
4 'name"  principle  running  through  daily  life  and 
observances  in  a  similar  way.  A  person's  name 
is  always  derived  from  that  of  someone  deceased, 
and  carries  with  it  the  namesake's  qualities;  one 
becomes,  indeed,  a  member  of  the  great  community 
of  all  who  have  borne  the  same  name  back  to  the 
ultimate  distant  past.  Each  living  human  being 
is  thus  attended  by  a  host  of  namesake-spirits,  who 
aid  and  protect  him  as  long  as  he  is  faithful  to  rule 
and  rite,  but  become  inimical  on  any  transgression. 
The  soul  of  the  caribou  detests  everything  per- 
taining to  the  creatures  of  the  sea ;  in  caribou  hunting, 
therefore,  all  implements  and  material  associated, 
with  hunting  at  sea  must  be  left  behind.  On  the 
other  hand,  footwear  which  has  been  used  for  caribou 
hunting  must  on  no  account  be  used  when  hunting 
seal  or  walrus.  Caribou  are  moreover,  peculiarly 
sensitive  in  regard  to  "contamination"  by  women; 
when  slain,  they  must  be  skinned  in  such  a  fashion 
that  certain  parts  of  the  carcase  are  protected  against 
direct  contact  with  a  woman's  hands.  Women  at 
certain  periods,  and  in  certain  conditions,  are  for- 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  133 

bidden  to  touch  either  the  meat  or  the  skin.  Dogs 
must  not  gnaw  the  bones  of  caribou  during  the 
hunting  season.  A  piece  of  the  meat  and  a  piece  of 
the  tallow  must  be  placed  under  a  stone  near  the  spot 
where  the  animal  was  killed;  this  is  an  offering  to  the 
soul  in  the  hope  that  it  may  attract  other  caribou  to 
-the  hunter. 

Walrus  hunting  has  its  own  special  rules,  which 
again  are  to  some  extent  distinct  from  those  which 
apply  to  seal.  Salmon,  curiously  enough,  are  reck- 
oned as  "land  meat*'  and  may  not  be  eaten  on  the 
same  day  as  seal  or  walrus  meat. 

Tabu  at  Igdlulik  was  particularly  strict,  as  it  was 
here,  according  to  tradition,  that  the  Mother  of  the 
Sea  met  with  her  fate,  and  she  is  thus  nearer  and 
more  easily  offended  than  elsewhere.  It  was  said 
that  she  hated  the  caribou  because  they  were  not  of 
her  own  creation;  hence  the  rtde  that  wfiale,  seal  and 
walrus  meat  mmfc  mw&  be  eatm  on  the  same  day  as 
caribou;  must  not  evea  be  f  ottnd  in  the  same  httt  at 
the  same  time. 

Some  of  the  sea-beasts  are  of  the 


order,  and  have  to  be  propitiated  after  death;  ifatts 
whale,  ribbon  seal  and  bear.  No  work  may  be  done 
in  the  huts  for  so  many  hours  after  the  killing;  parts 
of  the  carcase  must  be  hung  up  together  with  certain 
implements.  Ordinary  seal  are  easier  to  manage,  but 
here  again  there  are  complicated  rules  as  to  refraining 
from  this  and  that  tint-ill  it  has  been  skinned.  Certain 
articles  must  not  be  touched,  women  must  not  comb 
their  hair.  Sinews  of  the  seal  must  never  be  used  for 
sewing,  on  pain  of  premature  death. 


134          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Birth  and  death  have  their  own  peculiar  rites  and 
observances.  Various  means  are  employed  to  facili- 
tate birth,  mainly  of  the  magic  order,  such  as  the 
wearing  of  certain  amulets,  or  dressing  the  hair  in  a 
certain  way*  No  assistance  may  on  any  account  be 
rendered  to  the  woman  at  the  actual  birth;  she  is 
placed  beforehand  in  a  separate  tent  or  hut,  and 
there  left  until  the  child  is  born.  She  is  then  moved 
to  another  house  where  she  lives  by  herself  for  two 
months;  others  may  visit  her,  but  she  must  not  enter 
any  other  house.  For  a  whole  year  after  she  is  not 
allowed  to  eat  raw  meat,  or  the  meat  of  any  animal 
save  those  killed  in  certain  ways.  There  are  endless 
observances  designed  to 'secure  good  luck  or  useful 
accomplishments  for  the  child  when  it  grows 
up. 

Death  involves  first  of  all  the  attendance  of  the 
nearest  relatives  for  a  period  of  three  days  if  the 
deceased  be  a  man,  four  days  if  a  woman;  during 
this  time  the  soul  is  supposed  to  remain  in  the  body, 
which  must  not  be  left  alone.  No  work  must  be 
done,  nor  any  hunting  save  in  extreme  need,  during 
these  first  days  of  mourning.  No  one  is  allowed  to 
wash,  comb  hair  or  cut  nails.  Curious  methods  are 
employed  for  purification  of  the  hut  or  tent,  and 
certain  magic  formulae  are  used.  The  body  is  never 
buried  or  enclosed  in  a  cairn,  but  simply  laid  out  on 
the  earth  at  the  chosen  spot,  with  a  few  loose  stones 
placed  at  head,  shoulders  and  feet*  In  winter,  a 
small  snow  shelter  may  be  built  above  the  corpse. 
Models  in  miniature  of  implements  used  by  the  dead, 
suitable  for  man  or  woman  as  the  case  may  be, 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR  135 

are  fashioned  and  placed  beside  the  corpse  for  ttse 
"on  the  other  side." 

Persons  tired  of  life  and  wishing  to  hang  them- 
selves —  a  recognized  form  of  suicide  —  are  required 
to  do  so  while  alone  in  the  house,  and  by  certain 
methods;  it  is  also  a  rule  that  the  suicide  shall  leave 
the  lamp  burning  in  order  that  his  body  may  be  at 
once  observed  as  soon  as  anyone  enters  the  hut. 

A  woman  who  has  lost  a  near  relative  is  jnegarded 
as  unclean  for  a  year  after;  she  toay  not  work  on 
caribou  skin,  or  speak  of  any  animal  used  for  food 
except  in  the  peculiar  te&ms  employed  for  magic 
incantations.  A  man  who  has  lost  his  wife  may  iiot 
drive  or  strike  his  own  dogs  for  a  year  after. 

When  any  breach  of  these  irksome  regulations  has 
been  committed,  the  only  means  of  making  repar- 
ation and  warding  off  the  evil  consequences  that 
would  otherwise  ensue*  is  for  the  ddinqueat  to  con- 
fess at  once  to  his  fellows*  Tbere.is,  however,  a 
natural  tfflwilliiig^aess  to  <16  so;  and  fttrt&ennore,  the 
of  the  whole  code  renders  it  very  easy  for 


one  t0  offend  unwittingly*  Even  where  every  reason- 
able care  is  taken,  there  is  constant  danger  of  incur- 
ring the  enmity  of  spirits  and  supernatural  powers; 
and  it  becomes  the  task  of  the  angakoq,  then  to 
intervene. 

All  these  observances  however,  are  mainly 
negative;  designed  to  avoid  actual  disaster;  they 
do  not  make  for  any  positive  advantage  beyond 
the  ordinary  level  of  security.  He  who  would 
achieve  anything  further  xxrast  have  recourse  to 
amulets  and  charms,  or  spells* 


136  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Amulets  consists  mainly  of  certain  portions  of 
the  body  of  certain  animals,  which,  are  sewn  into  the 
clothing.  The  Igdlulik  natives,  unlike  those  of 
Netsilik,  use  very  few  amulets,  but  their  idea  as  to 
the  purpose  and  effect  is  the  same.  The  virtue  lies 
in  the  soul  of  the  creature  represented,  though  it  is 
only  certain  parts  of  its  body  which  can  convey 
the  power.  A  woman  with  a  newly  born  infant  for 
instance,  will  use  a  raven's  claw  as  a  fastening  for 
the  strap  of  her  amaut  (the  bag  in  which  the  child  is 
slung  on  her  back) ;  this  is  supposed  to  give  strength 
and  success  in  hunting  to  the  child  later  on. 

The  mystic  power  of  an  amulet  is  not  invariably 
at  the  service  of  the  person  wearing  it;  the  actual 
object  for  instance,  may  be  given  away  to  another, 
but  its  inherent  activity  will  not  operate  on  his 
behalf  unless  he  has  given  something  in  return. 
It  is  a  regular  thing  for  a  young  hunter  to  obtain  a 
harpoon  head  from  some  aged  veteran  no  longer  able 
to  hunt  for  himself;  the  "luck"  of  the  former  owner 
then  passes  with  the  chattel  to  its  new  possessor. 
Clothes  may  be  lucky  in  themselves.  One  lad  at 
Igdlulik  whose  father  was  always  unlucky  at  caribou 
hunting,  was  given  the  sleeve  linings  of  a  particularly 
successful  hunter,  and  these  were  fitted  successively 
to  every  tunic  he  wore,  and  brought  him  luck.  There 
axe  amulets  for  various  qualities,  such  as  making  the 
wearer  a  good  walker,  preserving  him  from  danger  on 
thin  ice,  keeping  him  warm  in  the  coldest  weather, 
giving  extra  stability  to  his  kayak,  and  so  on. 

Then  there  are  "magic  words"  for  use  in  various 
emergencies.  The  efficacy  of  these  is  impaired  as 


FAITH  OUT  OF  FEAR 

soon  as  they  are  made  known  to  others,  and  it  is 
therefore  difficult  as  a  rule  to  get  hold  of  them. 
They  consist  mainly  of  fragments  from  old  songs, 
handed  down  from  earlier  generations,  They  can  be 
bought,  at  a  high  price,  or  bequeathed  by  the 
"owner  "  on  his  deathbed  to  another.  But  they  must 
never  be  heard  by  any  save  the  one  who  is  to  use 
them,  or  their  power  will  be  gone, 

Aua  himself  had,  as  a  young  man,  learnt  certain 
charms  of  this  sort  from  an  old  woman  named 
Qeqertuanaq,  in  whose  family  they  had  been  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation  dating  back 
to  "the  very  first  people  on  earth."  And  by  way  of 
payment  Aua  had  undertaken  to  feed  aad  clothe  her 
for  the  rest  of  her  life.  They  had  always  to  be 
uttered  in  her  name,  or  they  would  be  of  no  avail. 

Here  is  one  of  than,  designed  to  lighten  heavy 
loads.  The  speaker  stands  by  the  fore  end  of  his 
sledge,  looking  ahead  aad  says: 

I  speak  with  the  month  of  Qeqertaanaq,  and  say: 

I  wffl  walk  with  kg  mtisdes  strong  as  the  sinews  <m 
the  shin  of  a  Httie  caribou  catf . 

I  mil  walk  with  leg  muscles  strong  as  the  sinews  on 
the  shin  of  a  little  hare, 

I  will  take  care  not  to  walk  toward  the  dark. 

I  will  walk  toward  the  day. 

(This  may  be  said  also  when  setting  out  on  a 


X*^/ 

Jor  ctaieg  sickness  among  ndgbfoors 
may  be  tttfeeral  by  one  who  is  weH.  Thesp^kerg^s 
up  eariy  in  tfae  toocirii^  before  airycme  dse  is  as«ir, 


138  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

takes  the  inner  upper  garment  of  a  child,  and  drawing 
down  his  own  hood  over  his  head,  thrusts  his  arms 
into  the  sleeves  of  the  child's  garment  as  if  to  put 
it  on.  Then  these  words  are  uttered: 

I  arise  from  my  couch  with  the  grey  gull's  morning 
song. 

I  arise  from  my  couch  with  the  grey  gull's  morning 
song. 

I  will  take  care  not  to  look  toward  the  dark, 

I  turn  my  glance  toward  the  day. 

Words  to  a  sick  child: 

Little  child!    Your  mother's  breasts  are  full  of  milk. 

Go  to  her  and  suck,  go  to  her  and  drink.  Go  up  into 
the  mountain.  Prom  the  mountain's  top  shalt  thou  find 
health;  from  the  mountain's  top  shalt  thou  win  life. 

A  charm  to  stop  bleeding: 

This  is  blood  from  the  little  sparrow's  mother.  Dry  it 
up !  This  is  blood  that  flowed  from  a  piece  of  wood.  Dry 

it  up. 

A  charm  for  calling  game  to  the  hunter: 

Beast  of  the  sea!  Come  and  place  yourself  before 
me  in  the  dear  early  morning! 

Beast  of  the  plain !  Come  and  place  yourself  before  me 
in  the  dear  early  morning! 

These  charms,  quaint  or  meaningless  as  they  may 
seem,  are  used  by  the  Eskimos  in  all  sincerity  and 
pious  faith,  as  prayers  humbly  addressed  to  the 
mighty  powers,  of  JMature. 


CHAPTER  X 

"I  HAVE  SEEN  SO  HAPPY  t" 

A  TJA'S  wife  Orulo  was  one  of  those  women  who 
**  give  themselves  up  entirely  to  their  housewifely 
duties.  She  was  never  idle  for  a  moment  from 
morning  to  night  and  could  get  through  a  wonder- 
ful amount  of  work.  Her  favorite  occupation  was 
sewing,  and  of  this  there  was  plenty,  as  the  men's 
clothes  were  constantly  in  need  of  repair  after  the 
wear  and  tear  of  hunting.  But  she  had  many  other 
things  to  attend  to  besides.  It  was  her  business 
to  fetch  in  snow  for  water*  and  beep  the  hut  sup- 
plied, to  have  a  stock  of  meat  thawing  near  the  lamp 
for  5fflB3®dia&e  use,  aad  a  supply  of  food  foe  the  dogs 
ready  eirt  tip  when  the  men  came  home.  There  was 
blubber  to  be  pressed  and  beaten  that  the  oil  might 
run  out,  the  lamp  itself  to  be  tended  carefully 
and  kept  from  smoking.  If  the  temperature  inside 
the  hut  rose  beyond  a  certain  point,  the  roof  would 
begin  to  drip,  and  had  to  be  plastered  with  fresh 
snow  from  within.  Occasionally,  when  a  part  of 
the  roof  or  wall  thawed  through,  she  had  to  go  out 
and  cut  away  the  weakened  portion,  fitting  fresh 
blocks  of  snow  into  the  hole.  There  was  blubber 
to  be  scraped  from  the  raw  skins  of  newly  killed 

139 


140  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

seal,  the  skins  themselves  stretched  out  to  dry  on  the 
frame  above  the  lamp,  and  pieces  of  hide  intended 
for  boot  soles  had  to  be  chewed  from  their  original 
state,  which  was  almost  as  hard  as  wood,  until  they 
were  soft  enough  for  working.  All  these  manifold 
duties  however,  she  took  cheerfully  as  part  of  the 
day's  work,  and  went  about  humming  a  scrap  of  some 
old  song,  as  happily  as  could  be.  And  there  was 
sure  to  be  a  cheerily  bubbling  pot  on  the  boil — more 
welcome  music  still — by  the  time  her  menfolk  came 
in  from  their  hunting* 

With  it  all  she  found  time  to  look  in  and  see  that 
all  was  well  with  her  neighbors,  lending  a  helpful 
hand  where  needed,  and  finding  a  bit  of  meat,  or  a 
lump  of  blubber,  from  her  own  store  for  those 
who  were  badly  off. 

I  had  often  asked  her  to  tell  me  something  of  her 
life,  and  such  of  her  experiences  as  she  reckoned  the 
most  important,  but  she  always  turned  it  off  as  a 
joke,  declaring  that  there  was  nothing  of  the  least 
importance  to  tell  about.  At  last  one  day  when 
we  had  the  hut  to  ourselves,  she  returned  to  the 
subject  of  her  own  accord.  I  was  busy  with  my 
own  work,  and  hardly  conscious  of  her  presence, 
when  she  began  without  preamble.  And  there, 
sitting  cross-legged  on  the  skins,  working  the  while  at 
a  pair  of  waterproof  boots,  she  told  me  the  story  of 
her  life. 

"I  was  born  at  a  place  near  the  mouth  of  Admir- 
alty Inlet,  but  while  I  was  still  quite  small,  my  par- 
ents left  Baffin  Land  and  came  to  Idglukk.  The 
first  thing  I  can  remember  was  that  my  mother  lived 


"I  HAVE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY!"         141 

alone  in  a  little  snow  hut.  I  could  not  understand 
why  my  father  lived  in  another,  but  then  I  was  told 
that  it  was  because  my  mother  had  just  had  a  child, 
and  must  not  be  near  the  hunters.  But  I  was  allowed 
to  visit  her  myself;  only  when  I  went  there  first,  I 
could  not  find  the  entrance.  I  was  so  little  at  that 
time  that  I  could  not  see  over  the  big  block  of  snow 
that  the  others  stepped  over  when  they  went  in,  and 
there  I  stood  crying  out  *  Mother,  Mother,  I  want  to 
come  in,  I  want  to  come  in/  At  last  someone  came 
out  and  lifted  me  over  and  into  the  hut.  Then  when 
I  got  inside  it  seemed  that  the  couch  erf  snow  she 
was  lying  on  was  ever  so  high,  that  I  could  not  get  up 
there  by  myself,  and  again  someone  had  to  lift  me. 
Yes,  I  was  as  little  as  that  at  the  time  when  I  first 
can  remember. 

'The  next  thing  I  remember  is  from  the  time  we 
were  at  Piling,  up  m  Baffin  Land.  I  remember  hav- 
ing the  feg  of  a  bii$;to  sat^  ever  so  t%  it  was*  brat 
that  was  because  I  was  oely  t^ed  to  haviog  ptarmi- 
gan, and  tills  was  tine  kg  erf  a  goose.  I  remember 
wfcat  a  huge  1%  bijrci  it  inasfc  be* 
cannot  remember  any  taoro  taufcii  o&e  day 


it  seems  to  wake  up  again,  and  we  were  Jiving  at  a 
place  called  the  Mountain.  My  father  was  ill,  and 
all  the  others  had  gone  away  hunting  caribou  and  we 
were  left  alone.  My  father  had  pains  in  his  chest 
and  lungs,  and  grew  worse  and  worse.  And  there  we 
were  all  alone,  my  mother  and  two  little  brothers  and 
myself  ,  and  mother  was  very  unhappy. 

"One  day  I  came  runninginto  the  tent  crymg  out: 
'Here  are  white  men  coming!'    For  I  had  seen  some 


142  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  A  MERICA 

figures  that  I  thought  must  be  white  men.  But  whea 
my  father  heard  me,  he  sighed  deeply  and  said, 
'Alas,  I  had  thought  I  might  yet  be  suffered  to  draw 
the  breath  of  life  a  little  while ;  but  now  I  know  that  I 
shall  never  go  out  hunting  any  more/ 

1  Tor  the  figures  I  had  seen  were  evil  trolls ;  no  white 
men  ever  came  to  our  country  in  those  days.  And 
my  father  took  it  as  a  warning  that  he  was  about  to 
die, 

"I  made  no  secret  of  what  I  had  seen,  but  told  it  to 
the  others  without  thinking  either  way  about  the 
matter.  But  my  little  brother  Sequsu  kept  it  secret; 
and  he  died  of  it  shortly  afterwards.  When  one 
sees  evil  spirits,  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  keep  it  secret. 

"Father  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  when  at  last 
we  saw  he  could  not  live  much  longer,  we  put  him  on 
a  sledge  and  carried  him  off  to  a  neighboring  village, 
where  he  died.  I  remember  they  wrapped  him  up  in 
a  skin  and  carried  him  away;  the  body  was  laid  out  on 
the  bare  ground,  with  its  face  toward  the  west.  My 
mother  told  me  that  this  was  because  he  was  an  old 
man;  when  old  men  die,  they  are  always  placed  so  as 
to  look  toward  the  quarter  whence  the  dark  of  even- 
ing comes;  children  must  look  towards  the  morning, 
and  young  people  towards  the  point  where  the  sun 
is  at  noon.  This  was  the  first  I  ever  learned  about 
the  dead,  and  how  we  have  to  fear  them  and  follow 
certain  rules.  But  I  was  not  afraid  of  my  father, 
who  had  always  been  kind  to  me.  And  I  thought  it 
was  unkind  to  let  him  lie  there  out  in  the  open,  all 
in  the  cold  with  no  covering;  but  then  my  mother 
explained  that  I  must  no  longer  think  of  him  as  in 


TYPICAL  WOMEN  OF  THE  TRIBE 


"I  HAVE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY!"         143 

that  body,  for  his  soul  was.already  in  the  land  of  the 
dead,  and  there  he  had  no  longer  any  pain. 

"After  this  we  went  to  live  with  an  old  man  who 
took  my  mother  to  be  another  wife  to  him,  and  we 
lived  in  his  hut.  It  was  soon  after  this  that  my 
brother  Sequsu  fell  ill;  he  had  pain  in  his  stomach, 
and  his  liver  swelled,  and  then  he  died.  I  was  told 
that  it  was  because  he  had  seen  those  evil  trolls  with 
me  before  our  father  died,  and  because  he  had  kept  it 
secret,  it  had  been  his  death,  for  it  is  always  so- 

"In  the  autumn,  when  the  first  saow  had  fallen, 
the  others  went  off  hunting  up  inland,  and  my 
other  brother  went  with  them.  I  remember  my 
mother  was  very  anxious  about  this,  for  she  did  not 
think  the  old  man  could  get  any  game,  having  only  a 
bow  and  arrows.  But  she  could  not  get  food  for  her- 
self, and  so  had  to  let  my  brother  go  with  them* 

"A  stmnge  thing  happened  a  little  after  tbis.  My 
mother  had  cooked  some  walrus  ribs  and  was  m&mg 
eating,  wfaaa  the  bone  sbe  bad  in  bar  baud  feegtn  to 
utter  sounds.  She  was  SQ  feigfatei^  sbe  slopped 
eating  &fc  once  and  threw  down  the  bone.  I 
mBember  her  face  T&ent  quite  white,  and  she  cried 
out:  'Something  has  happened  to  my  son!*  And  so 
it  was;  for  in  a  little  while  they  came  back  aod 
instead  of  walking  straight  into  the  hut,  the  man 
went  to  the  window  and  called  to  my  mother  and 
said:  'Dear  Little  Thing,  it  is  through  my  fault  that 
you  have  no  longer  a  son.'  Dear  Little  Thing  was  a 
name  he  had  for  my  mother.  And  then  he  came  in 
and  told  us  how  it  had  come  about.  They  had  been 
for  several  days  without  food  and  were  seeking  the 


144  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

spot  where  he  had  cached  a  caribou  some  time  before, 
but  could  not  find  the  spot.  So  they  separated,  his 
wife  going  one  way  and  he  with  the  two  boys  the 
other.  But  still  they  could  not  find  it.  It  was 
autumn,  the  first  snow  had  fallen,  and  a  cold  wind 
sent  it  whirling  about  them  every  now  and  then; 
and  their  clothes  were  poor  for  such  hard  weather. 
So  at  last  they  lay  down  behind  a  stone  shelter, 
worn  out  and  almost  perishing  with  cold.  The 
days  were  short  now  and  the  night  seemed  very  long, 
but  they  must  wait  for  daylight  before  they  could 
begin  their  search  again.  Meantime,  the  woman 
had  found  the  meat,  but  now  she  had  no  means  of 
knowing  where  to  find  the  others.  Being  anxious 
about  them  she  ate  but  little  herself,  and  gave  the 
child  she  was  carrying  a  tiny  piece  of  meat  to  suck. 
She  had  made  a  shelter  of  stones,  as  the  others  had 
done,  and  lay  there  half  dozing,  when  suddenly  she 
awoke,  having  dreamed  of  my  brother*  The  dream 
was  that  she  saw  him  quite  plainly  before  her,  very 
pale  and  shivering  with  cold.  And  he  spoke  to  her 
and  said:  'Now  you  will  never  see  me  again,  This 
has  come  upon  us  because  the  earth-lice  are  angry 
at  our  having  touched  their  sinews  before  a  year  had 
passed  after  my  father's  death.' 

"I  remember  this  so  distinctly  myself,,  because  it 
was  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  about  not  doing 
certain  things  for  a  year  after  someone  had  died. 
When  he  said  earth-lice,  he  meant  caribou;  that  is  a 
word  the  wizards  use. 

11  Now  the  woman  could  sleep  no  more  that  night 
because  of  her  dream.  My  brother  was  very  dear  to 


"/  HAVE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY!"         145 

her,  and  she  used  to  say  magic  words  over  him  to 
make  him  strong. 

"Next  morning,  when  it  was  light  and  the  others 
were  ready  to  start  again,  my  brother  was  so  weak 
that  he  could  not  stand,  and  the  two  others  were  too 
exhausted  to  carry  him.  So  they  covered  him  up 
with  a  thin  caribou  pelt  and  left  him.  Afterwards 
they  found  the  meat,  but  they  did  not  return  to  my 
brother.  He  was  left  to  freeze  to  death. 

"My  stepfather  had  his  old  mother  still  living;  sbe 
was  blind,  and  I  remember  1  was  terribly  afraid  of 
her  because  I  had  heaffd  that  ouee,  i 


she  had  eaten  human  flesh.  A  wise  woman  had  said 
charms  over  her  to  cure  her  blindness,  and  shehad 
just  begun  to  see  a  veary  little,  but  then  she  ate 
some  blubber,  and  that  is  a  thing  one  must  never 
do  when  being  cured  of  anything  by  magic;  after 
that  she  became  quite  blind  again  and  nothing  oonld 
make  her  see* 

"The  following  spring  we  left  that  place  and  came 
to  Admiralty  Inlet.  We  got  there  jttst  at  the  time 
wben  ersFeryone  was  getting  ready  to  go  up  country 
hunting  caribou,  One  of  the  women  had  just  given 
birth  to  a  child  before  her  time,  and  could  not  go 
with  the  rest,  so  my  mother  went  instead,  and  took 
me  with  her.  We  stayed  up  <xmntryalll3iatsiimmer. 
The  hunting  was  good,  and  we  helped  the  men  to  pile 
up  the  meat  in  store  places  or  cot  it  up  into  thin 
slices  and  laid  it  out  on  stones  to  dry-  It  was  a 
merry  fif  e,  we  had  all  kinds  of  nice  things  to  eat,  and 
the  day's  work  was  like  so  much  play.  Then  I 
remember  one  day  we  were  terrified  by  a  woman  from 


146  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

one  of  the  tents  crying  out:  'Come  and  look,  Oh 
come  and  look.'  And  we  all  ran  up  and  there  was  a 
spider  letting  itself  down  to  the  ground.  We  could 
not  make  out  where  it  came  from,  it  looked  as  if  it 
were  lowering  itself  on  a  thread  from  the  sky.  We  all 
saw  it  quite  plainly,  and  then  there  was  silence  among 
the  tents.  For  when  a  spider  is  seen  to  lower  itself 
down  from  nowhere  in  that  way,  it  always  means 
death.  And  so  it  was.  Some  people  came  up  from 
the  coast  shortly  after,  and  we  learned  that  four  men 
had  been  out  in  their  kayaks  and  were  drowned;  one 
of  them  was  my  step-father — and  now  we  were 
homeless  and  all  alone  in  the  world  once  more. 

"But  it  was  not  long  before  my  mother  was  married 
again;  this  time  to  a  young  man,  much  younger  than 
herself.  They  lived  together  until  he  took  another 
wife  of  his  own  age;  then  my  mother  was  cast  oS  and 
we  were  alone  again.  Then  my  mother  was  married 
once  more,  to  a  man  named  Aupila,  and  now  we  had 
some  one  to  look  after  us.  Aupila  wanted  to  go 
down  to  Pond's  Inlet,  to  look  for  some  white  men. 
He  had  heard  that  the  whalers  generally  came  to  that 
place  in  the  summer.  So  he  went  off  with  my 
mother,  and  I  was  left  behind  with  another  man  and 
his  wife.  But  I  did  not  stay  with  them  long,  for  the 
man  said  he  had  too  many  mouths  to  feed  already, 
and  I  was  passed  on  to  someone  else.  Then  at  last 
Aua  came  and  found  me;  'my  new  husband'  that  is 
my  little  name  for  Aua ;  and  he  took  me  away  and  that 
is  the  end.  For  nothing  happens  when  you  a#e 
happy,  and  indeed  I  have  been  happy,  and  had 
seven  children/'  : 


"/  HAVE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY!"         147 

Orulo  was  silent,  evidently  deep  in  thought.  But 
I  was  eager  to  hear  more,  and  broke  in  without 
ceremony: 

"Tell  me  what  is  the  worst  thing  that  ever  hap- 
pened to  you/' 

Without  a  moment's  hesitation  she  answered: 

"The  worst  that  ever  happened  to  me  was  a  famine 
that  came  just  after  my  eldest  son  was  born.  The 
hunting  had  failed  us,  and  to  make  matters  woerse,  the 
wolverines  had  plundered  all  our  depots  of  caribou 
meat.  During  the  two  coldest  months  of  winter,  Atta 
hardly  slept  a  single  night  in  the  hut,  but  was  out 
hunting  seal  the  whole  time,  taking  such  sleep  as  he 
could  get  at  odd  moments  in  little  shelters  built 
on  the  ice  by  the  breathing  holes.  We  nearly  starved 
to  death;  for  he  only  got  two  seal  the  whole  of  that 
time.  To  see  him,  sdfering  himself  from  cold  and 
hunger,  out  day  after  day  m  the  bitterest  weather, 
and  all  m  vain,  to  seeten gra^fting  thfameraiMl  weaker 
all  the  tame— oh,  it  wa&  <tecrfHet" 

"And  wliat  was  t&e  meest  thing  caf  all  you 
remember?" 

Orulo's  kindly  old  face  lit  up  with  a  metty 
she  put  down  her  work  and  shifting  a  little 
began  her  story: 

"It  was  the  first  time  I  went  back  to  Baffin  Land 
after  I  was  married.  And  I,  who  had  always  been 
poor,  a  child  without  a  father,  passed  on  from  hand  to 
hand— I  found  myself  now  a  welcome  guest,  made 
much  of  by  all  those  who  had  known  me  before, 
My  husband  had  come  up  to  challe&ge  a  raaa  he  fc&ew 
to  a  song  contest,  a&d  there  were  great  i easts 


I48  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

gatherings,  such  as  I  had  heard  of  perhaps  but  never 
seen  myself." 

"Tell  me  something  about  them/1 

"Well  there  was  the  Tivajuk,  the  Great  Rejoicing, 
where  they  play  the  game  of  changing  wives.  A  big 
snow  hut  is  built  all  empty  inside,  just  for  the  danc- 
ing, only  with  two  blocks  of  snow  in  the  middle  of  the 
floor.  One  is  about  half  the  height  of  a  man  and 
is  called  the  jumping  block,  the  other  is  a  full  man's 
height  and  is  called  the  lamp  block.  Two  men,  they 
are  the  Servants  of  Joy,  are  dressed  up,  one  like  a 
man,  the  other  like  a  woman,  and  both  wear  masks. 
Their  clothes  are  made  too  small  for  them  on  purpose, 
tied  in  tightly  just  where  they  ought  to  be  loose,  and 
that  makes  them  look  funny,  of  course.  It  is  part 
of  their  business  to  make  everyone  laugh. 

"Then  all  the  men  and  women  in  the  place  assemble 
in  the  dance  hut,  and  wait  for  the  two  masked  dancers. 
Suddenly  the  two  of  them  come  leaping  in,  the  man 
with  a  dog  whip  and  the  one  dressed  as  a  woman  with 
a  stick;  they  jump  over  the  jumping  block  and  begin 
striking  out  at  all  the  men  in  the  hut,  chasing  them  all 
out  until  only  the  women  are  left.  The  maskers  are 
supposed  to  be  dumb,  they  do  not  speak,  but  make 
signs  to  each  other  with  great  gestures  only  giving  a 
sort  of  huge  gasp  now  and  again  with  all  the  force  of 
their  lungs.  They  have  to  leap  nimbly  about  among 
the  women,  to  make  sure  there  are  no  men  hidden; 
then  out  they  go  to  the  men  waiting  outside.  One 
of  the  men  waiting  now  goes  up  to  the  two,  ami 
smiles,  and  whispers  the  name  of  the  woman  he 
specially  wants.  At  once  the  two  maskers  rush 


"  /  HA  VE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY!"         149 

into  the  hut,  and  touch  the  woman  named  under  the 
sole  of  the  foot.  Then  all  the  other  women  are 
supposed  to  be  ever  so  pleased  to  find  that  one  of 
their  number  has  been  chosen,  Then  the  three  go 
out  together;  and  every  time  the  maskers  go  in  and 
out  they  have  to  jump  over  the  jumping  block  with 
long  strides  trying  to  look  funny.  They  lead  out  the 
woman  who  has  been  chosen,  and  bring  her  back 
directly  after  with  the  man  who  asked  for  her;  tibe 
women  are  never  allowed  to  know  who  it  is  that 
wants  them  till  they  get  outside.  Both  have  to 
look  very  solemn  when  they  come  in,  aad  pretend  not 
to  notice  that  the  others  are  laughing.  If  they  laugh 
themselves,  it  means  a  short  life.  All  the  others  then 
call  out  'Unu-nu-nu-nu-nu-nu'  and  keep  on  saying 
it  all  the  time,  in  different  voices,  to  make  it  sound 
funny.  Then  the  man  leads  the  women  he  has 
chosen  twice  round  the  lamp  block,  aad  all  sing 
together: 

"Mask,  mask,  kapisg,  teasing  mask, 

Twirl  and  writhe  aad  dance  with  joy, 

Give  him  gifts  now, 

Dry  moss  for  lamp  wicks; 

Mask,  mask,  leaping  teasing  mask! 

"While  this  song  is  being  sung,  the  two  maskers 
have  to  keep  on  embracing  each  other,  making  it  as 
funny  as  they  can,  so  that  the  others  have  to  laugh, 

"So  the  game  goes  on  until  every  man  has  chosen 
a  woman,  and  then  they  go  home. 

"Another  festival  that  is  only  held  where  there  are 
a  lot  of  people  together  is  called  Qulungertut.  It 


ISO          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

begins  with  two  men  challenging  each  other  to  all 
kinds  of  contest  out  in  the  open,  and  ends  up  in  the 
dance  house. 

"Each  of  them  has  a  knife,  and  as  soon  as  they 
meet,  they  embrace,  and  kiss  each  other.  Then  the 
women  are  divided  into  two  parties*  One  side  sings 
a  song  and  they  have  to  keep  on  with  it  all  the  time, 
a  long,  long  song;  the  other  side  has  to  stand  with 
arms  up  waving  gull's  wings  all  the  time  and  see  who 
can  keep  on  longer.  Here  is  a  bit  of  the  song: 

"See  here  they  come 
Gaily  dressed  in  fine  new  skins, 
Women,  women,  all  young  women, 
See,  with  mittens  on  their  hands 
They  hold  the  gull's  wings  high  aloft 
See  their  skirt  tails  waving,  waving, 
All  the  time  as  they  are  moving. 
Women,  women,  aU  young  women, 
You  may  know  them  by  their  motion 
As  they  step  towards  the  men  who 
Take  them  for  their  prize  of  contest. 

"The  side  that  first  gives  in  has  to  step  across  to  the 
others,  who  make  a  circle  round  them,^  'and  then  the 
men  come  in  and  try  to  kiss  them. 

"After  this  game  there  was  a  shooting  match  with 
bow  and  arrows.  A  mark  was  set  up  on  a  long  pole, 
and  the  ones  who  first  hit  it  ten  times  were  counted 
the  best.  Then  came  games  of  ball,  and  very  exciting 
contests  between  men  fighting  with  fists,  until  the 
end  of  the  day,  and  then  a  song  festival  to  end  up 
with,  and  that  lasted  aU  night.  Here  are  some  of 
Aua's  songs: 


"/  HAVE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY!"          i5I 

WALRUS  HUNTING 

I  could  not  sleep 

For  the  sea  was  so  smooth 

Near  at  hand. 

So  I  rowed  out 

And  up  came  a  walrus 

Close  by  my  kayak. 

It  was  too  near  to  throw, 

So  I  thrust  my  harpoon  into  its  side 

And  the  bladder-float  danced  across  the  waves. 

But  in  a  moment  it  was  up  again, 

Setting  its  flippers  angrily 

Like  elbows  on  the  surface  of  the  water 

And  trying  to  rip  up  the  bladder. 

All  in  vain  it  wasted  strength, 

For  the  skin  of  an  unborn  lemming 

Was  sewn  inside  as  an  amulet  to  guard. 

Then  snorting  viciously  it  sought  to  gather  strength, 

But  I  rowed  up 

And  ended  the  strti||gia 

Hear  that,  O  men  from  stea^croefe  aad fjords 

That  were  always  so  a?eady  fe>  praise  yourselves; 

Now  you  can  fifl  your  lungs  witli  song 

Of  another  man's  bold  hunting. 

BEAR  HUNTING 

I  spied  a  bear 

On  the  drifting  floe 

Like  a  harmless  dog 

It  came  running  and  wagging  its  tail  towards  me 

But  all  so  eager  to  eat  me  up 

That  it  swung  round  snarling 

When  I  leaped  aside. 


152  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

And  now  came  a  game  of  catch-me-who-can 

That  lasted  from  morning  till  late  in  the  day, 

But  at  last  it  was  wearied 

And  could  play  no  more, 

So  I  thrust  my  spear  into  its  side. 

CARIBOU  HUNTING 

Creeping  noiselessly  I  moved  across  the  marsh 

With  bow  and  arrows  in  my  mouth; 

It  was  far,  and  the  water  icy  cold, 

And  not  a  scrap  of  cover  to  be  seen. 

Slowly  I  dragged  myself, 

Dripping  wet  but  still  unseen, 

Up  within  range. 

The  caribou  were  feeding, 

Nibbling  at  ease  the  juicy  moss 

Till  my  arrow  stood  quivering  deep  in  the  breast 

Of  the  biggest. 

Then  terror  seized 

Those  heedless  dwellers  of  the  plains, 

In  a  moment  they  scattered 

And  swiftly  trotting  hurried  away 

Beyond  the  refuge  of  the  hills/' 

Orulo  had  spoken  earnestly  of  her  life,  and  I  could 
feel,  as  she  went  on,  how  the  memories  affected  her 
while  she  recalled  them.  When  she  had  ended  her 
story,  she  burst  into  tears,  as  if  in  deep  sorrow.  I 
asked  her  what  was  the  matter,  and  she  answered: 

"Today  I  have  been  as  it  were  a  child  again.  In 
telling  you  of  my  life,  I  seemed  to  live  it  all  over 
again.  And  I  saw  and  felt  it  all  just  as  when  it  was 
really  happening.  There  are  so  many  things  we 


"I  HAVE  BEEN  SO  HAPPY/19          153 

never  think  of  until  one  day  the  memory  awakens. 
And  now  you  have  heard  the  story  of  an  old  woman's 
life  from  its  first  beginning  right  up  to  this  very  day. 
And  I  could  not  help  weeping  for  joy  to  think  I  had 
been  so  happy  .  „  ." 


CHAPTER  XI 

SEPARATE   WAYS 

prolonged  absence  of  Therkel  Mathiassen  at 
*  Southampton  caused  us,  at  last,  so  much  un- 
easiness that  I  began  making  preparations  for  a 
relief  expedition,  and  even  sent  down  to  Repulse 
Bay  for  a  guide,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the 
region,  to  go  with  me. 

February  2ist  was  a  perfect  beast  of  a  day,  with  a 
howling  blizzard,  and  bitterly  cold.  Nobody  stirred 
out  of  the  house  if  he  could  help  it.  The  Greenland 
Eskimos  were  indoors  mending  harness,  the  rest  of 
us  posting  up  our  journals.  Then,  suddenly,  the  door 
burst  open,  and  in  tumbled  Therkel  Mathiassen, 
with  Jacob  Olsen  at  his  heels,  followed  by  John  Ell, 
and  a  crowd  of  Southampton  Islanders. 

Mathiassen  had  been  eight  months  absent.  We 
gave  him  a  rousing  welcome,  as  may  be  imagined. 

The  expedition  had  done  good  work  and  met  with 
not  a  few  adventures  by  the  way.  Southampton 
Island  is  the  most  isolated  piece  of  territory  in  the 
whole  Hudson  Bay  district,  and  accessible  by  open 
boat  for  only  a  few  days  during  the  summer.  They 
had  planned  to  spend  only  a  fortnight  there,  but 
unfavorable  weather  and  other  mishaps  detained 
them.  The  local  natives  couldn't  do  anything  for 
them,  and  when  Mathiassen  violated  tabus  by 
cracking  caribou  skulls  with  iron  hammers,  he 

154 


SEPARATE  WAYS  155 

aroused  their  fears.  One  night,  Jacob  Olsen  over- 
heard one  of  the  locally  employed  Eskimos  and  his 
wife  plotting  to  kill  Mathiassen  and  himself,  and 
frustrated  the  attack*  The  lack  of  personal  malice, 
however,  was  so  evident,  that  the  plotters  were  for- 
given and  allowed  to  continue  with  the  party.  The 
difficulties  arising  from  native  prejudices,  together 
with  an  injury  to  Olsen's  hand  and  a  loog  sickness  of 
Mathiassen's,  due  at  the  beginning  to  his  inability  to 
eat  the  rotten  walrus  meat,  made  the  trip  to  Sofrtfa- 
ampton  Island,  though  fruitful  of  good  expedition 
material,  a  kind  of  nightmare.  We  weane  all  glad  to 
forget  it  in  the  preparation  for  the  next  year's  work. 

For  we  had  now  come  to  the  parting  of  the  ways, 
and  the  Fifth  Thule  Expedition  was  about  to  split 
up  into  five  separate  projects  each  with  its  own  field 
of  work,  scattering  over  the  greater  part  of  the 
Arctic  Coast  of  Canada. 

Maihiassea  was  to  go  by  dog-dtedge  to  Pond's 
Inlet  in  Baffin  Land,  to  supplement  his  ethnological 
investigations  with  imp-making  and  other  studies 
in  that  territory. 

Birket-Smith  with  Jacob  Olsen  as  interpreter, 
was  to  continue  with  the  Caribou  Eskimos,  and  then 
go  on  to  the  Chipywan  Indians,  near  Churchill. 

Peter  Freuchen,  was  to  stay  fear  a  while  to  look 
after  the  transportations  of  our  collections,  and  then 
survey  the  route  to  Chesterfield.  The  Greenlanders 
would  remain  at  headquarters,  until  they  cotdd  be 
taken  back  to  Greenland  by  Freuchen. 

And  I,  myself,  was  to  start,  about  the  loth  of 
March,  for  my  long  sledge  trip  through  the 


156          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

west  Passage,  with  only  Miteq  and  Anarulunguaq  to 
help  me.  Helge  Bangsted  would  accompany  me  a 
little  way,  and  then,  after  further  excavations,  would 
return  to  help  Freuchen  supervise  the  removal  of  otir 
effects. 

The  rest  of  this  account  will  have  to  do  only  with 
my  own  observations,  but  I  carried  with  me  for  some 
time  the  regret  of  breaking  off  contact  with  com- 
panions with  whom  I  had  been  so  happily  associated 
for  eighteen  months.  And  it  is  a  pleasure  to  recall 
that  our  work  together  was  never  marred  by  the 
slightest  discord  among  ourselves. 

The  Greenlanders,  too,  had  done  their  part  well. 
Like  all  other  Arctic  expeditions  we  had  based  our 
maintenance  on  the  help  afforded  by  these  faithful 
hunters  and  workers.  There  was  Arqioq,  a  steady 
sensible  fellow  of  thirty  odd,  who  had  spent  most  of 
his  life  with  one  expedition  or  another,  including  two 
from  America.  Bosun,  a  few  years  younger,  had 
been  my  foster  son  at  Thule  since  he  was  ten  years 
old.  He  was  a  dead  shot,  a  good  comrade,  and 
cheerful  under  the  most  adverse  circumstances. 
Their  wives,  too,  had  done  all  that  was  possible  to 
make  our  headquarters  homelike  and  comfortable. 

Especial  gratitude  was  due  to  Jacob  Olsen,  not 
oinly  for  his  indispensable  services  to  Mathiassen, 
but  also  for  his  abilities.  In  contrast  with  the 
others,  who  had  lived  always  native  fashion,  and 
were  only  baptized  just  before  we  left  Greenland, 
Olsen  was  a  man  of  some  education,  having  spent  six 
years  in  a  seminary  and  acquired  a  considerable 
knowledge  of  books,  though  he  was  no  less  adequate 


SEPARATE  WAYS  157 

as  a  hunter  on  that  account.  He  was  valued  as  an 
interpreter,  and  was  useful  even  in  collecting 
ethnographical  material. 

I  should  like  to  close  this  part  of  the  book  with  a 
recollection  of  one  of  our  last  evenings  at  home.  I 
had  just  come  in  from  a  run  over  the  ice,  and  was 
driving  up  in  the  twilight  towards  the  house,  where 
the  light  from  the  windows  shed  a  glow  on  the  space 
in  front.  Seme  of  the  dogs  were  stepping,  33  if 
making  the  fflost  of  their  time  bdfoiB  fresh  iiard  week 
set  in;  groups  of  men  and  women  weie  at  .work  by 
lantern  light  getting  the  new  sledges  rea%-  for  use. 
The  daylight  was  not  long  enough  for  all  these  was  to 
be  done.  Hammers  rang,  and  the  rhythmic  bacfc- 
and-f orth  of  the  plane  spoke  cheerily  of  work  wefi  in 
hand.  A  wild  scene,  maybe,  yet  not  without  a 
beauty  of  its  own.  Dark  against  the  white  plain 
rose  the  two  peaks  where  we  had  raised  memorial 
stones  to  those  whom  death  had  taken  on  the  thres- 
hold; at  the  foot,  stood  the  domed  snow  huts,  with 
little  ice  windows  twinkliBglafce  stars. 

Into  the  midst  of  this  I  drove,  my  team  scattering 
their  sleeping  companions  to  every  side  and  bringing 
up  against  the  wall  where  they  were  accustomed  to 
lie  themselves.  And  as  we  halted,  I  heard  someone 
singing  a  little  way  ofL  The  words  seemed  curiously 
appropriate  to  the  occasion: 

Only  the  Air-spirits  know 
What  lies  beyond  the  hills, 
Yet  I  turge  my  team  farther  o& 
Drive  on  and  on, 
On  and  on! 


CHAPTER  XII 

STEPPING  OUT 

""FHE  Arctic  spring  was  full  of  promise  on  that 
^      March  morning  when  we  took  leave  of  ote 
companions  and  set  out  on  our  long  sledge  trip* 
Two  continents  lay  between  us  and  home. 

Our  party  consisted  of  but  three  persons  in  afl;' 
Miteq,  Anarulunguaq  and  myself.  Miteq,  a  you&g 
man  of  twenty-two  from  Thule  was  a  very  old  friend 
of  mine;  I  had  known  him,  indeed,  from  the  time 
when  he  lay  screaming  lustily  in  his  mother's  amatrt. 
He  was  a  skilful  and  untiring  hunter,  and  a  good 
driver,  besides  being  a  cheery  companion.  Anaru- 
lunguaq, a  woman  of  twenty-eight,  was  Miteq's 
cousin.  Oddly  enough,  she  had  as  a  child  been  on 
the  point  of  being  killed  off  as  a  burden  to  the 
community,  as  is  often  done  with  fatherless  childreii, 
but  her  little  brother's  intercession  had  saved  her 
life.  And  here  she  was  setting  out  upon  a  journey 
that  wa&  to  make  her  the  most  famous  woman 
traveller  of  her  tribe.  I  could  not  have  wished  for 
better  companions  than  these  two. 

"Our  equipment  was  the  simplest  possible.  We 
1iad  two  long  six-metre  sledges  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
type,  with  ice  shoeing,  each  drawn  by  twelve  dogs, 
and  with  a  load  of  500  kilos,  to  each  sledge.  About 

158 


ANARULUNGUAQ,  THE  YOUNG  ESKIMO  WOMAN  FROM  GREENLAND 

She  accompanied  the  Expedition  on  the  long  sledge  journey  through  the  North-west  Passage  and 
round  the  north  of  Alaska,  returning  to  Greenland  via  New  York  and  Copenhagen. 


160  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

tance  they  stopped,  and  I  at  once  went  forward  to 
meet  them  and  assure  them  we  were  friends.  They 
carried  long  snow  knives  and  sealing  harpoons,  but 
I  thought  it  best  to  carry  no  weapon  myself.  They 
were  greatly  astonished  to  find  a  white  man  in  these 
regions,  and  more  so  when  I  hailed  them  in  their 
own  tongue: 

"  You  may  lay  aside  your  weapons;  we  are  peace* 
able  folk  who  have  come  from  afar  to  visit  your  land/' 

On  this  the  elder  of  the  pair  stepped  forward  and 
said: 

"We  are  just  quite  ordinary  people,  and  you  need 
fear  no  harm  from  us.  Our  huts  are  near;  our 
weapons  are  not  meant  to  do  you  hurt,  but  it  is  well 
to  have  weapons  here  when  meeting  strangers/' 

We  went  back  to  our  hut,  and  the  two  men,  who 
had  been  somewhat  shy  at  first,  were  soon  at  ease  and 
friendly.  They  were  particularly  interested  in  the  two 
Greenlanders,  who  came  from  so  far  a  country  and 
yet  spoke  the  same  tongue.  They  themselves,  it 
appeared,  were  on  their  way  down  to  Repulse  Bay 
with  fox  skins,  to  buy  new  guns,  their  own  having 
been  lost  in  crossing  a  river  some  time  before. 

Despite  the  blizzard,  we  now  decided  to  move 
over  to  our  new  friends*  quarters.  Orpingalik, 
the  elder  of  the  two,  explained  that  they  were  but  a 
short  distance  away.  It  cost  us  three  hours  fierce 
batting  with  the  storm,  however,  before  we  reached 
the  spot.  There  were  two  snow  huts  built  together, 
cosy,  well  furnished  and  well  supplied  with  food. 
The  natives  here  were  remarkably  well  built  and 
handsome,  differing  in  many  ways  from  the  ordinary 


I , 

.„    .c 


£  s 


c  I 

g  1 


81 

S  § 

2  I 

S  1 


STEPPING  OUT  161 

Eskimo  type  and  rather  like  the  Indians  in  feature, 
but  their  frank,  open  smile  and  character  generally 
were  those  of  the  true  Eskimo.  We  soon  made 
friends  with  them. 

Orpingalik  was  an  angakoq,  and  well  up  in  the 
legends  and  traditions  of  his  people,  and  I  was  glad 
to  avail  myself  of  the  tine  while  my  companions  were 
busy  getting  our  goods  down,  to  have  a  talk  with  him 
about  such  matters.  I  was  anxious  in  the  first 
place  to  learn  how  mao  j  of  the  stories  I  had  already 
written  down  among  the  IgdluliBgrniut  were  known 
to  him,  and  we  went  through  at  least  a  hundred  of 
these  together.  Also,  he  gave  me  some  rare  magic 
songs,  or  spells,  which  I  paid  for  in  kind,  giving  him 
in  return  some  of  those  I  had  obtained  from  Aua. 
The  transaction  was  regarded  as  perfectly  legitimate, 
as  the  magic  would  take  no  harm  when  it  was  a  white 
man  who  acted  as  the  medium  of  conveyance. 

jaani  spefls  asae  rltffireilt  to 


late,  as  the  words  themselves  asne  <rftea 


the  actual  context;  they  have  to  be  uttered  in  a 
peculiar  way,  with  great  distinctness  aad  sometimes 
with  pauses  here  and  there;  the  virtue  Ees  to  a  great 

extent  in  the  way  they  are  spoken. 

One  which  Orpingalik  regarded  as  of  great  value 
was  the  Hunter's  Invocation,  which  is  roughly  as 
follows: 

I  am  ashamed, 
I  fed  humbled  and  afraid, 
My  grandmother  sent  me  oat 
Sent  me  out  to  seek 


162  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

I  am  out  on  an  errand 

Seeking  the  precious  game, 

Seeking  the  wandering  fox. 

But  alas,  it  may  be  I  shall  frighten  sway 

That  which  I  seek. 

I  am  ashamed, 

I  feel  humbled  and  afraid, 

My  grandmother  and  great-grandmother 

Sent  me  out  to  seek. 

I  go  on  their  errand  after  game, 

After  the  precious  caribou 

But  alas,  it  may  be  I  shall  frighten  away 

That  which  I  seek. 

When  he  had  given  me  this,  he  declared  that  we 
were  now  almost  like  brothers.  Another  useful 
song  is  the  Poor  Man's  Prayer  to  the  spirits,  which  is 
spoken  at  dawn  before  setting  out  hunting,  when 
the  blubber  is  running  low  and  fresh  supplies  are 
urgently  wanted. 

0  father-  and  motherless, 

O  dear  little  one-all-alone 

Give  me    , 

Boots  of  caribou. 

Bring  me  a  gift, 

A  beast  of  those  beasts 

That  make  luscious  blood  soup; 

A  beast  of  the  beasts 

From  the  depths  of  the  sea 

And  not  from  the  plains  of  earth. 

Little  father-  and  motherless  one, 

Bring  me  a  gift. 


STEPPING  OUT  163 

This  is  ttsed  for  seal;  when  hunting  caribou,  on  the 
other  hand,  one  must  say: 

Caribou, 

Earthlouse, 

Longlegs 

One  with  Big  Ears 

And  stiff  hair  on  the  neck, 

Flee  not  from  me. 

Here  I  bring  skin  for  boot  safes, 

Here  I  bring  moss  far  lamp  wicks, 

Come  then  gladly 

ESther  tome 

Hither  to  me. 

Orpingalik  himself  was  a  poet,  with  a  fertile 
imagination  and  sensitive  mind;  he  was  always 
singing  when  not  otherwise  employed,  and  called  his 
songs  his  "comrades  in  lotieHness***  Here  is  tlie 
beginning  of  one  of  them — written  when  he  was 
slowly  recovering  from  a  severe  Illness,  It  is  called 
My  Breath. 

I  will  stag  a  song, 

A  little  song  about  myself 

I  have  lain  sick  since  the  autumn 

And  now  I  am  weak  as  a  child, 

Unaya — unaya. 

Sad  at  heart  I  wish 

My  woman  away  in  the  house  of  another 

In  the  house  of  a  W&T* 

Who  may  be  her  refuge, 

Firm  and  sure  as  the  strong  winter  ice. 


164  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Sad  at  heart  I  wish  her  away 
In  the  house  of  a  stronger  protector 
Now  that  I  myself  lack  strength 
Even  to  rise  from  where  I  lie. 
Unaya, — unaya. 

Who  knoweth  his  fate? 

Here  I  lie,  weak  and  unable  to  rise, 

And  only  my  memories  are  strong, 

I  asked  Orpingalik  how  many  songs  he  had  made 
up,  and  he  said  "  I  cannot  tell  you,  for  I  do  not  know 
how  many  there  are  of  these  songs  of  mine.  Only  I 
know  that  they  are  many,  and  that  all  in  me  is  song. 
I  sing  as  I  draw  breath." 

Singing  is  indeed  very  prevalent  among  these 
people.  They  go  about  singing  all  day,  or  humming 
to  themselves.  The  women  sing  not  only  their 
husbands'  songs,  but  have  songs  of  their  own  as  well 
Orpingalik  taught  me  one  that  belonged  to  his  wife. 
They  had  a  son,  Igsivalitaq,  who  had  killed  a  man 
some  years  before,  and  was  now  living  as  an  outlaw 
up  in  the  hills  near  Pelly  Bay,  in  fear  of  being  brought 
to  justice  by  the  Mounted  Police.  His  mother  had 
made  a  song  about  him,  as  follows: 

Eyaya — eya, 

I  find  again 

The  fragment  of  a  song 

And  take  it  to  me  as  a  human  thing, 

Eyaya— -eya. 

Should  I  then  be  ashamed 

Of  the  child  I  once  bore, 

Once  carried  in  my  ainaut, 


c 
> 

$ 

5 

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STEPPING  OUT  165 

Because  there  came  news  of  his  flight 

Prom  the  dwellings  of  men? 

Eyaya — eya. 

Ashamed  I  may  be, 

But  only  because  he  had  not 

A  mother  flawless  as  the  bhie  sky 

Wise  and  without  unwisdom. 

Now  tibe  gossip  of  others  shall  teach  him, 

And  II!  repute  follow  that  teaching. 

I  should  incteed  be  ashamed, 

1,  who  bone  a  ddM 

That  was  not  to  be  my  refage; 

I  envy  instead  all  those 

Who  have  a  host  of  friends  behind  them 

Beckoning  on  the  ice 

When  they  have  taken  leave  at  a  merry  feast  before 

starting. 

Alas,  I  remember  a  winter 
When  we  set  off  from  the  island, 
The  air  was  warm 

And  the  tiiawing  snow  saag  under  tbe  mmtfm* 
I  was  as  a  taiBe  beast  aanong  isen. 
But  when  the  news  came 
Of  the  killing,  and  of  the  ffigfct, 
Then  the  earth  became  as  a  mountain  peak, 
Its  summit  needle-pointed, 
And  I  stood  trembling. 

The  song  is  interesting  less  for  its  form  than  for  the 
evidence  it  aifords  as  to  the  workings  of  the  primitive 
mind. 

On  the  5th  of  April  we  took  lea ve  of  QrpingaSk  aad 
his  people,  the  whole  party  shoutiisg  after  tas  as  we 
drove  off: 


166          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

"Tamavta  tornaqarataingerdlasa"  ("May  we  all 
travel  with  tic  evil  spirits  in  our  train"). 

We  had  bought  a  store  of  meat  from  Orpingalik 
before  leaving,  and  were  to  pick  it  up  on  the  way 
from  the  spot  where  it  was  cached.  Part  was  fish, 
the  rest  seal  meat  and  caribou.  The  fish  we  found 
without  much  difficulty,  and  were  delighted  to  find 
that  we  had  purchased,  for  a  pound  of  tea,  a  pound 
of  sugar,  twenty  cakes  of  tobacco  and  a  small  pocket- 
knife,  something  like  six  hundred  pounds  of  fine  sea 
trout,  besides  the  seal  and  caribou.  To  get  at  this 
last,  however,  we  had  first  to  hunt  up  Igsivalitaq 
the  outlaw,  who  knew  where  it  was.  This  was  rather 
a  delicate  task,  and  Orpingalik  had  warned  us  to  be 
careful  how  we  approached  him.  We  found  his  hut, 
but  it  was  empty,  and  fresh  tracks  showed  that  he 
and  his  party  had  made  off  to  the  northward.  Fol- 
lowing up  the  tracks,  we  came  up  with  him  in  the 
course  of  the  day.  I  greeted  him  with  the  same 
words  as  his  father  had  used  at  our  first  meeting: 

"We  are  just  quite  ordinary  people,  and  you  need 
fear  no  harm  from  us/' 

The  outlaw  was  evidently  relieved  to  find  that  he 
was  not  being  hunted  down,  but  only  receiving 
visitors  with  greetings  from  his  family.  He  gave  a 
shout  of  delight,  and  his  wife  came  out  from  the  snow 
hut  and  joined  in  the  welcome. 

Later,  Igsivalitaq  gave  me  an  account  of  the 
circumstances  which  had  led  to  his  act  of  homi- 
cide— and  certainly,  h©  had  acted  under  consider- 
able provocation.  I  advised  him  in  any  case  most 
earnestly  to  make  no  attempt  at  escape  in  the  event 


STEPPING  OUT  167 

of  his  being  sought  for  by  the  Mounted  Police,  and 
above  all  not  to  resist  capture  by  aimed  force;  it  was 
unlikely!  I  thought,  that  he  could  be  punished  very 
severely.  At  the  same  time  I  endeavored  to  instil 
into  him  some  idea  as  to  the  sacredness  of  human 
life  and  the  wickedness  of  killing  a  fellow-man;  my 
exhortation  here,  however,  was  unfortunately  im- 
paired in  its  effect  by  what  the  poor  outlaw  himself 
had  heard,  through  some  traders  from  Repulse  Bay, 
as  to  the  doings  of  the  white  men  in  the  Great  War. 

On  the  following  day,  under  Igsivalitaq's  guidance, 
we  filled  up  our  stores  from  the  depot  of  seal  and 
caribou  meat,  and  drove  on  again  to  a  camp  of  snow 
huts  some  distance  out  in  the  fjord. 

Arviligjuaq,  "The  Land  of  the  Great  Whales, "  is 
a  term  used  to  denote  the  whole  of  the  PeUy  Bay 
district,  and  is  derived  not  from  any  actual  pre- 
valence of  whales  in  those  waters— ^as  far  as  I  could 
learn,  there  are  none — but  from  some  hill  formations 
on  land,  which  viewed  from  a  distance  present  the 
appearance  of  whales. 

The  people  here  were  Arviligjuarmiut,  a  tribe 
related  to  the  Netsilik  group,  but  holding  apart  from 
them  as  regards  their  territorial  limits,  and  keeping  to 
the  district  between  Lord  Mayor's  Bay  and  Com- 
mittee Bay.  This  winter,  they  numbered  in  all  but 
fifty-four  souls,  men,  women  and  children,  divided 
among  three  settlements,  two  on  the  ice  in  Pelly  Bay 
and  a  third  on  the  west  coast  of  the  Simpson 
Peninsula. 

The  whole  region  seemed  to  be  one  of  plenty,  and 
the  Arviligjuarmiut  informed  me  proudly  that  the 


168  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

scarcity  and  famine,  such  as  the  Netsilingnriut  west 
of  Boothia  Isthmus  often  suffered,  were  altogether 
unknown  among  themselves.  This  was  due  to  the 
variety  of  game  at  their  disposal  in  sequence  through- 
out the  year;  caribou,  musk  ox,  seal  and  fish;  should 
one  form  of  hunting  fail,  there  was  always  another 
to  fall  back  on. 

The  Arviligjuarmiut,  whose  country  lies  right  off 
the  routes  followed  by  white  men  through  these 
regions,  have  from  the  first  learned  to  rely  on  such 
material  as  their  own  territory  afforded  for  the 
making  of  weapons  and  implements  generally. 
Knives  are  made  from  a  kind  of  yellowish  flint, 
brought  from  a  considerable  distance,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Back's  River.  Fire  was  obtained  from 
"Ingnerit,"  i.e.,  firestone,  iron  pyrites,  found  near 
the  sea  west  of  Lord  Mayor's  Bay.  Sparks  were 
struck  so  as  to  fall  on  specially  prepared  tinder  made 
from  moss  soaked  in  blubber.  Soapstone  for  lamps 
and  cooking  pots  was  procured  from  the  interior 
south  of  Pelly  Bay. 

The  greatest  difficulty  was  the  scarcity  of  wood. 
Owing  to  the  masses  of  drift  ice  always  collecting 
out  in  Boothia  Gulf,  drift  wood  never  came  up  into 
the  fjord;  the  nearest  place  where  it  could  be  obtained 
was  on  t&e  shores  of  Ugjulik,  west  of  Adelaide  Pen- 
instia*  Mostly,  however,  the  natives  here  learned 
to  manage  without  wood;  they  made  long  slender 
harpoon  shafts  of  horn,  the  pieces  being  straighteiied 
out  laboriously  in  warm  water  and  joined  length  to 
length.  Tent  poles  were  fashkmed  in  the  same  way, 
only  one  being  used  for  each  tent.  Owing  to  the 


STEPPING  OUT  169 

scarcity  of  iron  and  flint,  harpoon  beads  were  made 
from  the  hard  sfambone  of  the  bear, 

When  summer  was  at  an  aid,  and  the  tents  no 
longer  required,  they  were  turned  into  sledge  run- 
ners. This  was  done  by  laying  out  the  skirts  in  a  pool 
to  soak,  and  when  thoroughly  softened  by  this 
means,  folding  them  orcr  aad  over  into  long  narrow 
strips  of  several  thicknesses,  and  leaving  the  whole 
to  freeze  hard  in  the  shape  of  a  runner.  Musk  ox 
skins  were  used  in  the  same  way.  These  runners  of 
frozen  sdrins  were  ftirther  straigtbeaied  by  a  pocking 
of  raw  fish  or  meat  between  the  layers,  the  whole 
being  frozen  to  a  compact  mass.  Then  in  the 
spring,  when  warmer  weather  set  in  and  the  sledges 
thawed  and  fell  to  pieces,  the  tent  strin  runners  did 
final  service  as  food  for  the  dogs,  and  the  meat 
"stuffing"  as  food  for  their  masters. 

There  were  originally  two  trade  routes  offering 
means  of  oommnnieatkjii  with  tribes  from  whom  iron 
and  wood  cotdd  be  procttred  in  case  of  i^eed,  Goe 
was  via  Rae  Isthmus  down  to  Chesterfield,,  where, 
before  the  new  trading  station  was  established, 
knives  cotdd  be  procured  from  natives  who  had  been 
down  to  Churchill.  The  other  was  across  Back's 
River  to  Saningajoq,  the  country  between  Baker 
Lake  and  Lake  Garry,  and  thence  to  Aldlineq,  the 
famous  hill  district  on  the  Thekm  River,  where  the 
Eskimos  from  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  used  to  meet 
the  Caribou  Eskimos  for  purposes  of  trade.  Wood;  in 
particular,  was  brought  from  here. 

And  these  hardy  f  oHc  were  not  afraid  o£ 


long  journeys  by  sledge,  beti^*  away  sometimes  for  a 


170  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

whole  year,  in  order  to  procure  some  luxury  which 
they  could  well  do  without;  on  the  other  hand  the 
possession  of  a  real  knife,  or  a  wooden  sledge,  con- 
ferred a  certain  distinction  upon  its  owner,  while  the 
woman  who  could  make  and  mend  her  husband's 
clothes  with  a  needle  of  iron  or  steel  was  an  object 
of  envy  among  her  less  fortunate  sisters, 

It  is  generally  believed  that  the  wreckage  of  the 
Franklin  Expedition  was  of  great  importance  in 
the  domestic  economy  of  the  North-west  Passage 
Eskimos,  and  in  particular,  that  their  supplies  of 
wood  and  iron  were  for  years  obtained  from  this 
source.  I  never  found  any  confirmation  df  this; 
on  the  other  hand,  I  did  find  that  the  Eskimos  right 
from  Committee  Bay  to  Back's  River,  from  King 
William's  Land  to  the  Kent  Peninsula,  possessed 
implements  whose  origin  could  be  traced  back  to  the 
John  Ross  Expedition,  which  appeared  in  Lord 
Mayor's  Bay  in  the  autumn  of  1829  and  wintered 
there.  The  natives  round  Pelly  Bay  had  still  many 
reminiscences  of  this  expedition,  and  the  sober  fash- 
ion in  which  they  spoke  of  these  experiences,  now 
nearly  a  hundred  years  old,  goes  far  to  show  how 
trustworthy  these  Eskimos  are  when  dealing  with 
anyone  who  understands  them. 

They  state  that  John  Ross's  ship  was  first  observed 
early  in  the  winter  by  a  man  named  Avdlilugtoq,  who 
was  out  hunting  seal.  On  perceiving  the  great  ship 
standing  up  like  a  rocky  island  in  a  little  bay,  he 
moved  cautiously  towards  it,  as  something  he  had  not 
seen  before.  The  sight  of'  its <taH' masts,  however, 
convinced  him  that  it  nrast  be  a  great  spirit,  and  he 


STEPPING  OUT  171 

tttraed  and  fled.  That  evening,  and  throughout  the 
night,  the  men  held  council  as  to  what  should  be 
done*  Ultimately,  it  was  decided  that  if  they  did 
not  take  active  measures  themselves,  the  great  spirit 
would  certainly  destroy  them;  they  therefore  set  oS 
on  the  following  day,  armed  with  bows  and  har- 
poons, to  attack  it.  They  now  discovered  that  there 
were  human  figures  moving  about  beside  it,  and 
therefore  hid  behind  bk>cks  of  ice  in  order  to  see  what 
manner  of  beings  these  might  be.  The  white  men, 
however,  had  already  sighted  them,  aod  caoia  to- 
wards them.  They  stepped  out  then  from  their 
hiding  places  to  show  they  were  not  afraid.  The 
white  men  at  once  laid  down  their  weapons  on  the 
ice,  and  the  Eskimos  did  the  same;  the  meeting  was 
cordial,  with  embraces  and  assurances  of  friendship 
on  both  sides,  though  neither  could  understand  the 
other's  tongue.  The  Eskimos  had  heard  of  "white 
men  "  but  this  was  the  first  time  that  any  had  visited 
their  country  ,  Tbe  whi 


costly  gifts—  all  tn^.nn^r  of  things  winch  they  ocmld 
never  have  procured  for  tfaerasdires  —  and  there  was 
much  intercourse  between  them,  the  natives  going 
out  with  them  on  journeys  and  helping  them  in 
various  ways  from  their  knowledge  of  the  country. 
The  names  of  some  who  went  out  more  often  than 
the  rest  with  the  white  men  are  still  remembered: 
as  Iggiararsuk,  Agdlilugtoq,  Niungitsoq  and  Ing- 
nagsanajuk. 

After  the  first  winter,  the  ship  was  beset  by  the 
ice  and  ultimately  sank  in  Itsuartooik  (Lord 
Mayor's  Bay),  but  the  "insldes"  of  the  ship  were 


172  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

saved,  being  carried  on  shore  in  boats  to  Qilanartut; 
and  when  the  strangers  finally  went  away  for  good, 
they  left  behind  them  a  great  store  of  wood,  iron, 
nails,  chain,  iron  hoops  and  other  costly  things, 
which  are  still  in  use  at  the  present  day  in  the  form 
of  knives,  arrow  heads,  harpoon  heads,  salmon 
spears,  caribou  spears  and  hooks.  Some  time  after,  a 
mast  came  ashore,  and  from  this  sledges,  kayaks  and 
harpoons  were  made.  The  mast  was  first  cut  up  by 
saws  made  from  barrel  hoops;  it  took  them  all  the 
summer  and  autumn  to  do  it,  but  there  was  plenty  of 
time. 

There  are  interesting  stories  current  also  as  to  the 
Franklin  Expedition.  One  old  man  named  Iggiarar- 
juk  relates  as  follows: 

"  My  father,  Mangak,  was  out  with  Terqatsaq  and 
Qavdlut  hunting  seal  on  the  west  coast  of  King 
William's  Land,  when  they  heard  shouts,  and  per- 
ceived three  white  men  standing  on  the  shore  and 
beckoning  to  them.  This  was  in  the  spring,  there  was 
already  open  water  along  the  shore,  and  they  could 
not  get  in  to  where  the  others  stood  until  low  water. 
The  white  men  were  very  thin,  with  sunken  cheeks, 
and  looked  ill;  they  wore  the  clothes  of  white  men, 
and  had  no  dogs,  but  pulled  their  sledges  themselves. 
They  bought  some  seal  meat  and  blubber,  and  gave 
a  knife  in  payment.  There  was  much  rejoicing  on 
both  sides  over  the  trade;  the  white  men  at  once 
boiled  the  meat  with  some  of  the  blubber  and  ate  it. 
Then  they  came  home  to  my  father's  tent  and  stayed 
the  mght,  returning  next  day  to  their  own  tent, 
which  was  small  and  not  made  of  skins,  but  of 
something  white  as  the  snow.  There  were  already 
caribou  about  at  that  season,  but  the  strangers 


STEPPING  OUT  173 

seemed  to  hunt  only  birds.  The  eider  duck  and 
ptarmigan  were  plentiful,  but  the  earth  was  not  yet 
come  to  life,  and  the  swans  had  not  arrived.  My 
father  and  those  with  him  would  gladly  have  helped 
the  white  men,  but  could  not  understand  their 
speech;  they  tried  to  explain  by  signs,  and  in  this  way 
much  was  leaareed,  It  seemed  that  they  had  for- 
merly been  many,  but  were  now  only  few,  and  their 
ship  was  left  out  on  the  ice.  They  pointed  towards 
the  south,  and  it  was  understood  that  they  proposed 
to  return  to  their  own  place  overland.  Afterwards, 
no  more  was  seen  of  them  ,  and  it  was  cot  k&prmi  what 
had  become  of  them." 

And  lest  any  doubt  should  remain  as  to  the  ver- 
acity of  his  account,  Iggiararjuk  mentions  the  names 
of  all  those  who  were  in  the  camp  when  the  white 
men  came:  Mangak  and  his  wife  Qerneq,  Terqatsaq 
and  his  wife  UkaEaq,  Qavdlut  and  ids  wife  Ihttana, 
Ukuararsuk  and  Ms  wife  PrrtuHk,  Baaatoq  and  his 


Among  other  visits  from  white  mea,  they  remem- 
ber those  of  John  Rae  ia  1847  aad  1854, 

I  am  quite  ready  to  axfamt  that  there  is  nothing 
particularly  exciting  about  these  reminiscences  in 

themselves,  but  this  very  fact:  the  lack  of  any 
special  interest  in  the  episodes,  affords  proof  of  the 
memory  and  reliability  of  these  Eskimos.  Their 
encounters  with  the  white  men  were  of  the  most 
castial  order,  and  there  was  no  time  for  them  to 
become  closely  acquainted  with  the  stranger;  uewr- 
theless,  the  accounts  of  such  meetings  are  preserved, 
even  after  this  long  lapse  of  years,  m  a  manner  Which 
speaks  for  itself  as  to  their  reliability.  And  if  we 


174  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

look  up  the  official  reports  of  the  respective  expedi- 
tions concerned,  we  find  that  the  native  tradition 
is  in  excellent  accord  with  the  facts  there  stated. 

The  last  day  was  given  up  to  sports  of  various 
kinds,  among  which  target  shooting  with  bow  and 
arrow  was  particularly  effective.  The  targets  were 
life  size  figures  built  of  snow*  And  I  noted  here, 
that  while  the  arrows  might  strike  at  a  distance  of 
100  metres  with  force  enough  to  kill,  the  shooting  at 
this  range  was  very  uncertain.  Accurate  shooting 
was  limited  to  a  distance  of  20  to  30  metres.  Most 
of  the  men  of  course  possessed  firearms,  which  would 
naturally  lead  them  gradually  to  neglect  their  practice 
with  the  bow  and  arrow.  Nevertheless,  the  musk  ox 
hunting  of  the  previous  autumn.,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Lake  Simpson,  had  been  carried  out 
exclusively  with-bow  and  arrow,  and  twenty  or  thirty 
beasts  would  be  brought  down  by  this  means. 

The  same  evening,  I  had  a  visit  from  a  man  named 
Uvdloriasugsuk,  who  had  come  in  from  his  camp  a 
day's  journey  to  the  north-west.  He  was  a  big, 
broad-shouldered  fellow  with  a  long  black  beard;  a 
steady  and  reliable  man,  greatly  esteemed  by  all  who 
knew  him.  Nevertheless,  he  had  shot  his  own 
brother  the  winter  before.  And  it  was  in  con- 
nection with  this  frilling  that  he  wished  to  see  me. 
The  brother,  it  appeared,  was  a  man  of  unruly 
temper,  who  went  berserk  at  times,  and  had  killed 
one  man  and  wounded  others  in  his  fits.  His  fellow 
villagers  therefore  decided  that  he  must  be  killed,  aad 
Uvdloriasugsuk,  as  head  of  his  village,  was  deputed 
to  act  as  executioner.  Much  against  his  will,  for  he 


CHAPTER  XIII 

GOING  PRETTY  FAR   WITH  THE  SPIRITS 

day  when  we  were  lying  out  in  Pelly  Bay  east 
of  Boothia  Isthmus,  two  men  came  running  up 
out  of  the  blizzard  in  front  of  the  hut. 

It  was  like  a  naked  man  suddenly  knocking  at  the 
door.  They  had  no  sledge,  no  dogs,  and  carried  no 
weapon  save  their  long  snow  knives.  And  this  was 
the  more  extraordinary  since  their  dress  showed  that 
they  came  from  a  distance. 

We  got  them  in  and  thawed  them  up  a  little,  and 
after  a  good  meal  they  were  able  to  give  an  account 
of  themselves.  They  were  two  brothers  from  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Magnetic  Pole,  out  with  a  load 
of  fox  skins  which  they  were  going  to  trade  for  old 
guns  with  the  natives  at  Pelly  Bay.  Qaqortingneq, 
the  elder,  was  turning  back  now;  and  we  decided  to 
go  back  with  him  to  visit  his  tribe. 

The  rest  of  his  party  were  in  camp  some  distance 
off;  he  brought  them  up  and  introduced  them;  two 
wives  and  a  foster  son.  Quertilik,  the  prettier  of  the 
two  women,  had,  he  explained,  cost  him  a  whole 
wooden  sledge;  the  other,  Qungaq,  had  been  pur- 
chased for  the  modest  price  of  a  bit  of  lead  and  an 
old  file.  He  explained,  however,  that  he  had  got  her 
cheap,  as  her  husband  had  just  died  of  hunger.  The 
boy  had  been  bought  in  infancy,  for  a  kayak  and  a 

176 


QUBRTILIK,  NALINGIAQ'S  PRETTY  DAUGHTER,  WIFE  OF  THE  CHIEF  QAQORTINGNEQ 


WITH  THE  SPIRITS  177 

cooMug  pot — men,  of  course,  are  worth  more  than 
women. 

We  did  a  little  trading,  ourselves,  and  I  secured  a 
blue  fox  skin  for  our  collection  at  the  price  of  a  few 
beads.  On  the  following  morning  we  struck  camp 
and  set  out  together  aox>ss  Franklin  Isthmus,  mak- 
ing for  an  encampment  of  Netsifingmiut  out  on  the 
ice  between  ITItig  William's  Land  and  Boothia 
Isthmtis. 

Q&  the  31*1  of  May  we  camped  oorthof  tteMtrrchi- 
son  River,  in  a  great  plain  leading  down  to  Shepherd 
Bay.  An  endless  expanse  of  white  spreads  aS 
around,  broken  only  here  and  there  by  a  few  isolated 
hillocks  jutting  up  like  seals1  heads  from  the  waste. 
Qaqortingneq  was  an  intelligent  fellow,  and  thorough- 
ly acquainted  with  the  Netsilik  district;  also,  he  drew 
excellent  maps.  The  camp,  however,  had  been 
shifted  since  he  left  it,  and  it  was  not  until  the  even- 
ing d:  tifoe  5th  thai  our  dogs  picked  tip  the  soeat. 
Even  then  it  was  not  the  camp  itself,  but  &  et*riods 
indication.  Ahead  of  us  on  the  kse  lay  a  kng  Iiaa  dl 
seal  skulls,  with  the  snouts  pointing  in  a  particular 
direction.  This  Qaqortingi^q  explained  was  the 
work  of  the  hunters  on  shifting  camp,  it  being 
generally  believed  that  the  seal  would  follow  in  the 
direction  in  which  the  snouts  of  the  slain  were  set. 
In  the  present  instance,  it  served  as  a  guide  to  us, 
pointing  the  way  the  party  had  gone. 

After  some  fruitless  chasing  about  among  confusing 
tracks,  we  came  upon  the  village.  Great  blocks  of 
snow  were  set  up  roimd  it,  not  for  shelter,  but  as 
frames  on  which  to  lay  out  the  skins  to  dry.  The 


178  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

people  of  Kuggup  Panga  (The  River  Mouth)  had 
evidently  no  need  of  sheltering  walls;  they  had,  how- 
ever, set  up  spears  and  harpoons  in  the  snow  outside 
their  huts,  and  long  snow  knives  above  the  doorways, 
to  keep  off  evil  spirits. 

No  white  man  had  visited  these  people  since  the 
coming  of  Amundsen  twenty  years  before,  and  I  was 
a  little  anxious  as  to  how  they  would  receive  us. 
Coming  upon  them  as  we  did  in  the  middle  of  the 
night  there  was  no  time  for  much  in  the  way  of 
explanation, 

I  crept  into  a  house,  together  with  Qaqortingneq's 
foster-son,  Angutisugssuk,  who  was  one  of  the  party 
that  had  accompanied  us  from  Pelly  Bay.  It  was 
his  mother's  house  we  now  entered. 

"  Here  are  white  men  come  to  visit  us,"  he  cried 
excitedly.  His  mother  jumped  up  at  once  from  a 
bundle  of  dirty  skins,  knelt  down  on  the  sleeping 
bench  and  bared  her  breast,  which  the  boy  hurried 
forward  to  kiss.  This  is  a  son's  greeting  to  his  mother 
on  returning  from  a  long  journey.  In  the  midst  of 
these  squalid  surroundings,  this  recognition  of  the 
bond  between  them,  the  son's  homage  to  the  mother's 
breast,  was  to  me  doubly  impressive. 

We  had  hardly  made  ourselves  known  to  them 
when  I  observed  that  the  women  were  gathering 
in  an  odd  sort  of  order  about  our  sledges;  and  soon 
they  began  marching  round  them  in  solemn  pro- 
cession. On  enquiring  the  reason  for  this  I  was 
informed  that  it  was  a  ceremony  designed  to  ward  off 
any  possible  danger  from  the  "spirits"  which  had 
accompanied  us  on  our  way  unknown  to  ourselves. 


WITH  THE  SPIRITS  179 

It  is  a  custom  on  the  corning  of  strangers,  for  all  the 
women  who  have  borne  children,  to  step  a  circle 
round  the  sledge  with  its  team;  undesirable  spirit 
entities  are  then  "bound"  within  the  magic  tihncle 
and  can  do  no  harm* 

By  the  time  we  had  unloaded  our  goods  and  gear, 
friendly  hands  had  built  a  hut  for  us,  and  we  were 
hardly  settled  in  our  qttarters  when  two  huge  seals 
wem  dragged  tip  before  the  door  as  food  for  ourselves 
and  our  dogs. 

Early  the  next  morning  we  were  awakened  by  the 
unceremonious  entry  of  the  Tillage  wizaixl,  one 
Niaqunguaq.  He  was  in  a  trance,  and  talked  in  a 
squeaky  falsetto;  the  burden  of  his  message  being 
that  his  "helping  spirits"  had  visited  him  during  the 
night  and  declared  that  Qaqortingneq  had  eaten  of 
forbidden  food,  videlicet,  the  entrails  of  salmon, 
while  in  our  company.  This  is  tabu  during  the  seal 
hunting  season*  It  was  a  safe  gtbess  anyhow,  as  the 
frozen  fish  were  there  among  our  stores  witen.  we 
unpacked  the  sledge,  plain  for  alt  to  see.  Incensed 
authority  was  pacified,  howwear,  by  the  fragrance 
from  our  coffee  pot,  which  I  had  quietly  put  on  tbe 
oil  stove  while  he  was  capering  about,  I  took  the 
opportunity  to  question  him  further  as  to  these 
helping  spirits  of  his,  and  learned  that  he  counted 
about  a  score.  One  was  a  naked  infant  he  had  found 
sprawling  on  the  bare  earth  far  from  httman  habi- 
tations; another  was  an  Indian  who  had  appeared 
to  him  with  icicles  in  his  hair  and  a  flint  knife  stack 
through  his  nose;  a  third  was  a  lemming  with  a 
httman  fare,  which  could  also  take  the  form  of  an 


i8o          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

eagle,  a  dog  or  a  bear.  This  lemming  was  his  special 
guardian  angel.  Despite  the  importance  thus  con* 
ferred,  and  his  dignity  as  a  wizard,  he  was  not  above 
enjoying  a  mug  of  coffee,  and  when  he  left,  we  were 
on  the  most  friendly  terms. 

We  spent  the  rest  of  that  day  going  visiting  from 
hut  to  hut.  I  soon  discovered  that  we  were  in  a 
hunting  camp,  where  all  were  intent  upon  the  most 
pressing  of  all  our  human  occupations,  the  getting  of 
their  daily  bread.  It  would  be  better  therefore,  for 
my  purpose,  to  call  on  them  some  other  time,  later 
in  the  year,  when  they  had  settled  in  King  William's 
Land.  I  decided  accordingly  to  move  on  to  the 
Magnetic  Pole,  where  there  was  said  to  be  a  big  cainp. 

I  myself  was  anxious  to  make  a  collection  of  amulets 
from  among  the  Netsilingmiut,  where  they  were  in 
use  to  an  extent  beyond  what  was  customary  with 
other  tribes, 

On  the  nth  of  May  I  took  leave  of  my  comrades 
and  set  off  to  the  northward  through  Rae  Strait, 
taking  with  me  one  Alorneq,  whose  personality  is 
best  indicated  by  the  fact  that  his  gums  were  always 
dry  from  constant  smiling. 

We  had  no  very  precise  idea  as  to  where  our  people 
were  to  be  found,  as  camps  in  the  spring  shift  with 
the  movements  of  the  seal.  We  had  first  of  all  to  get 
up  to  the  north  of  Matty  Island  and  into  Wellington 
Strait,  where  we  might  hope  to  come  upon  sledge 
tracks  leading  in  the  right  direction.  It  was  difficult 
indeed  to  keep  any  sort  of  direction  here.  The 
compass  itself  was  useless  owing  to  the  proximity  of 
the  magnetic  pole,  and  the  low  south-eastern  .shore 


WITH  THE  SPIRITS  181 

of  King  William's  Land  with  Franklin  Isthmias,  is 
hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  sea  ice,  while  the 
few  mountain  ranges  are  always  wrapped  in  a  veil 
of  driving  snow,  We  drove  for  two  days  without 
sight  of  a  landmark  anywhere;  then  we  got  a  glimpse 
of  the  south-west  coast  of  Boothia  Isthmus,  and  on 
the  third  day  went  OB  tip  through  Roes  Strait,  where 
we  knew  there  had  been  a  camp  earlier  in  the  winter. 
A  fresh  north-easter  was  blowing  as  we  passed  the 
north  coast  of  Matty  Island,  and  in  Wellington 
Strait  we  began  to  look  about  on  the  chance  of  sight- 
ing bear,  which  not  infreqtseiitly  come  in  here 
hunting  seal  on  their  own  account. 

It  was  at  Cape  Adelaide,  close  to  the  Magnetic 
Pole,  that  we  came  upon  the  first  snow  huts;  these 
were  deserted,  but  the  quaint  little  "offerings"  of 
seal  skulls  pointed  the  way  the  hunters  had  gone; 
we  followed  up  their  tracks,  and  came  upon  more 
huts,  first  five,  then  three,  then  twelve,  and  tfeea 
twelve  again. 

Alorneq  is  a  magnificent  tracker;  he  knows  people 
by  the  way  they  build  their  httts,  the  way  tfaey  Be 
down  to  sleep,  as  well  as  by  their  actual  spoor,  and 
long  before  we  come  up  with  the  party  he  is  able  to 
tell  who  they  are.  When  we  did  come  upon  them  it 
was  with  a  certain  suddenness,  our  dogs  disappearing 
headlong  out  of  sight  in  what  proved  to  be  the 
entrance  to  a  hut. 

Alorneq  went  from  one  to  another  announdbag  oar 
arrival,  all  turned  out  without  the  slightest  hesitation 
and  helped  us  to  rights,  and  we  were  socm  settled 
among  them  as  comfortably  as  could  be. 


1 82  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Amulet  hunting  is  rather  a  delicate  business,  and  I 
had  to  proceed  with  care.  My  business  was  to 
obtain,  in  the  name  of  science,  all  that  I  could  of  these 
little  odd  trifles  which  are  held  by  the  wearers  to 
possess  magic  power,  and  worn  as  a  protection  against 
ill.  But  it  had  to  be  done  in  such  a  manner  that  I 
should  not  be  held  accountable  afterwards  for  any 
evil  that  might  befall  those  who  had  parted  with 
their  treasures. 

I  spent  the  first  day  making  myself  known  to  all, 
and  seeking  as  far  as  I  could  to  win  their  confidence. 
This  meant,  incidentally,  partaking  of  generous 
meals  at  the  shortest  intervals — for  after  all,  human- 
kind  is  much  alike  all  over  the  globe,  and  one  of  the 
best  ways  of  getting  to  know  your  neighbor  is  to 
dine  with  him. 

Meantime,  Alorneq  had  unpacked  the  trade  goods 
and  set  them  out  for  all  to  see.  There  were  brand 
new  glittering  needles,  taken  out  of  their  papers  and 
laid  in  a  heap,  there  were  knives  and  thimbles,  nails 
and  matches  and  tobacco — little  ordinary  everyday 
trifles  to  us,  but  of  inestimable  value  to  those  beyond 
the  verge  of  civilization.  I  was  pleased  to  note  that 
there  was  a  constant  stream  of  visitors  to  our  little 
exhibition. 

That  evening,  on  returning  to  £he  hut,  I  found  it 
packed  with  eager  men  and  women.  All  had  some- 
thing to  offer  in  exchange,  principally  skins  such  as 
traders  usually  ask.  There  was  a  murmur  of  dis- 
appointment when  I  announced  that  I  did  not 
propose  to  trade  on  the 'usual  lines.  I  explained  that  I 
had  come  from  a  distant  land  in  order  to  learn  the 


WITH  THE  SPIRITS  183 

customs  of  other  tribes,  and  bad  visited  them  in 

particular  on  account  of  their  amulets,  of  which  I  had 

heard  so  much*    I  then  gave  them  a  lecture  oil  the 

subject  of  amulets  and  their  power,  the  gist  of  which 

was  that  as  I  was  a  f  oreigner  from  across  the  wide 

seas,  the  ordinary  rules  and  regulations  applying  to 

amulets,  tabu  and  the  lite  did  not  apply  to  tne.    I 

had  in  the  meantime  made  the  acquaintance  of  their 

0?m  medicine  man,  and  quoted  him  in  support  of  my 

arguments,  together  with  other  atttfaorities—  -famous 

angakoqs  of  other  tribes,  whose  names,  it  is  true, 

they  had  never  heard  before,  but  whose  words  never- 

theless carried  weight.    I  pointed  out  that  an  owner 

of  an  amulet  still  enjoyed  its  protection  even  in  the 

event  of  his  losing  the  amulet  itself  —  and  this  was 

agreed.    How  much  more  then,  must  he  retain  its 

protective  power  when,  by  giving  away  the  artide 

itself,  he  secured  the  material  advantage  of  some- 

thing valuable  m  e&dhasge?    Na&M&ss  to  say,  I 

emphasised  tins  feet  that  I  wsas  mfc 


power  of  the  charm,  whidi  must  rernain  with  the 
original  owner,  but  only  the  article  itsdf  f  and  its 

history, 

Despite  all  arguments,  it  was  plainly  a  matter  that 
required  thinking  over.  I  left  them  to  sleep  on  it, 
and  decide  next  day  whether  they  would  trade  or  not. 

It  was  late  next  morning  before  we  awoke  and 
removed  the  block  with  which  the  entrance  to  a  hat 
is  closed  at  night.  This  was  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  our  receiving  visitors,  as  it  is  not  considered  good 
manners  to  call  OB  people  until  their  htit  had  been 
opened. 


i84          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Aforaeq  and  I  made  some  tea  and  had  some 
teeakfast,  but  nobody  came  along.  I  was  beginning 
to  fear  the  worst  when  a  girl  strolled  casually  down 
towards  the  hut  and  stood  hesitating.  I  had  noticed 
bar  the  day  before,  admiring  some  of  our  beads.  We 
invited  her  to  come  in,  and  she  crawled  through 
the  passageway  with  all  the  amulets  she  was  wearing 
on  behalf  of  her  son— when  she  should  have  one. 
Women  rarely  wear  amulets  on  their  own  account. 
The  Tpdritnn  idea  is  that  it  is  the  man  and  not  the 
woman  who  has  to  fight  the  battle  of  life,  and  conse- 
quently, one  finds  little  girls  of  five  or  six  years  old 
wearing  amulets  for  the  protection  of  the  sons  they 
hope  to  bear— lor  the  longer  an  amulet  has  been 
worn,  the  greater  is  its  power. 

Has  giri,  whose  name  was  Kuseq,  now  handed  me 
a  Httfe  akin  bag  containing  all  her  amulets,  newly 
removed  from  various  parts  of  her  clothing,  where 
they  were  generally  wean.  I  took  them  out  and 
examined  them,  a  pitiful  little  collection  of  odds  and 
eaods,  half  mouldy,  evil-smelling,  by  no  means  calcu- 
lated to  impress  the  casual  observer  with  any  idea 
of  magic  power.  There  was  a  swan's  beak— what  was 
that  for?  Very  sweetly  ami  shyly  the  girl  cast  down 
her  eyies  a&d  answered :  "That  I  may  have  a  maa- 
cfe&l  for  my  fost-boni/7 

'•that  tl^B  was  the  head  of  a  ptarmigan,  with  a 
fo^tdftfeesasobe  bin!  tied  <m;  this  was  to  give  the  boy 
speed  and  e^israoee  in  hunting  caribou.  A  bear's 
toolb  gate  powraful  faws  and  sound  digestion;  the 
pelt  of  an  ermine,  witti  §fctjM  attached,  gave  strength 
and  agifity;  a  little  dried  flounder  was  a  protection 


WITH  THE  SPIRITS  185 

against  dangers  from  any  encounter  with  strange 
tribes. 

She  had  still  a  few  amulets  besides,  but  these  she 
preferred  to  keep,  so  as  to  be  on  the  safe  side.  Mean- 
time, a  number  of  others  had  found  their  way  into 
the  hut,  young  men  and  women,  who  stood  xramd 
giggling  and  adding  toonr  finst  otstomer's  embarrass- 
ment, Bu&  their  scornful  smiles  gave  place  to 
wonder  whea  they  saw  what  we  gaye  her  in  retani; 
beads  eaoagfa  for  a  whole  little  aeddaoe,  two  beanti- 
ful  bright  needles  and  a  sewing  ring  into  the  bargain. 
The  girl  herself  could  not  conceal  her  satisfaction  at 
the  deal;  and  when  she  went  out,  I  realized  that 
this  little  daughter  of  Eve  had  set  jtast  the  example 
that  was  needed* 

In  a  couple  of  hours  time  there  was  such  a  tun  on 
the  shop  that  I  was  really  afraid  the  premises  would 
be  lifted  bodily  Irani  their  fouodatiort,  and  before 
bedtime  I  was  able  to  anoocmoe  that  we  had  "sold 
out/*  In  retara,  I  had  a  raoqne  collection  of 
amulets,  comprising  several  htradred  items, 

Among  those  most  frequently  reaming  asd  con- 
sidered as  most  valuable,  were  portions  of  the  body 
of  some  creatttre  designed  to  convey  Its  attributes; 
as  the  tern,  for  skill  in  fishing,  foot  of  a  toon,  for 
*3ri1l  in  handling  a  kayak,  head  aad  daw  of  a  raven, 
for  a  good  share  of  meat  in  all  htmting  (the  raven 
being  always  on  the  spot  when  any  animal  is  killed), 
teeth,  of  a  caribou,  worn  in  the  clothing,  for  skill  in 
caribou  hunting.  A  bee  with  its  brood  sewn  tip  in  a 
scrap  of  skirt  grres  "a  stiong  head";  a  %  makes 
the  person  invtdnerable,  as  a  %  is  difficult  to  hit* 


186          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

One  o£  the  few  amulets  worn  by  women  on  their  own 
account  is  a  strip  from  the  skin  of  a  salmon,  with 
tine  scales  along  the  lateral  line;  this  is  supposed  to 
give  fine  strong  stitches  in  all  needlework. 

We  paefced  up  our  collection  and  stowed  all  away, 
ready  to  move  off  the  next  morning.  Our  departure 
was  delayed  however,  at  the  last  minute,  by  a  visit 
from  the  local  medicine  man,  whom  I  had,  as  already 
mentioned,  appealed  to  as  an  authority  in  support  of 
my  theory  as  to  the  harmlessness  of  the  transaction. 
He  now  demanded  further  payment  in  return.  It 
was  plain,  he  said,  that  I  must  be  a  man  of  remarkable 
power  myself,  and  a  lock  of  my  hair,  for  instance, 
would  be  uaosfc  valttable  as  an  amulet  in  the  event  of 
trouble  with  spirits  later  on,  He  suggested  that  I 
should  pvte  a  piece  to  each  of  those  who  had  traded 
with  me.  I  was  rather  taken  aback  at  this;  with 
every  wish  to  give  niy  friends  a  fair  deal,  I  could  not 
bat  remember  that  it  was  winter,  in  a  chilly  climate, 
and  I  was  loth  to  set  out  on  my  further  travels 
entirely  bald.  We  compromised  therefore  with  a  few 
lodks  of  bak  for  the  most  important  customers,  the 
lesfc  being  satisfied  with  bits  of  an  old  shirt  and  ttaric 
divided  amongst  them. 

actual  haircuttiog  was  the  worst  part  of  it, 
lode  bd^g  sliara,  ot  rather  sawn,  off  by  the 

himself  with  a  sHtmltig  knife,  and  not  over 
nt  ifaat.    Scfesocs  were  unknown  among  these 
dbytifetiiaie^^ 
Sf^aiaace  was  baldly  what  my  hair- 

at  ,b©8ie  JM&M  ociasider  t^t  of  a  gentlemaa, 
*§  gofc  away^alwtifc  midday,  instead  of  at 


NIAQUNGUAQ,  THE  WIZARD 

The  white  band  across  his  forehead,  made  from  the  soft  underskin  of  the  caribou,  marks 
him  as  an  angakoq,  or  witch-doctor. 


WITH  THE  SPIRITS  187 

daybreak  as  I  had  intended*  But  the  whole  village 
waved  us  a  hearty  farewell,  and  I  had  the  satisfaction 
of  feeling  that  we  left  than  convinced  of  having 
obtained  full  value  for  what  they  had  given,  aod 
something  oveir. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE 

HTHE  visit  of  Back,  in  1833,  was  the  first  ever  paid 
*  by  white  men  to  the  Utkuhikhalitigmiut — the 
name  generally  given  to  the  natives  inhabiting  the 
ddta  and  lower  reaches  of  the  Great  Fish  River. 
The  woitl  means  "Dwellers  in  the  Land  of  Soap- 
stone"  aad  tefe&s  to  a  deposit  of  the  mineral  south  of 
Lake  Franklin* 

The  wMte  men  were  very  kind,  and  gave  the 
natives  handsome  and  costly  gifts.  Nevertheless, 
so  runs  the  tradition,  there  was  a  great  fear  of  the 
strangers,  and  the  angakoq  had  said  that  no  good 
was  to  be  looked  for  from  that  quarter.  Therefore, 
wfaesi  the  white  men  took  their  departure,  after  only 
erne  night's  stay,  an  elder  of  the  tribe  stood  forth 
on  a  rock  in  the  river  and  uttered  a  spell  to  prevent 
them  from  ever  returning.  "And  that  was  in  the 
olden  days,  when  there  was  yet  power  in  magic 
spells,**  Hence  the  fact  that  no  white  men  have 
erer  ge&tted  among  the  Utkuhikhalingmiut  since 
that  day. 

Oertatuly  t  the  story  is  in  agreement  with  the  facts 
iosoiar  as  the  people  of  this  region,  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Great  Fish  River,  as  well  as  the  kindred  tribes 
farther  up  inland,  are  among  the  least  known  of  all 

i&8 


AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE  189 

the  Eskimos.  No  one  has  made  any  stay  among 
them,  and  there  is  no  description  extant  of  their  Hfe 
and  ways.  The  one  occasion  on  which  any  Arctic 
expedition  came  into  contact  with  them  was  the  visit 
of  Back  above  mentioned,  in  1833,  and  this  was  a 
matter  of  a  few  hoars  only,  the  more  unproductive 
from  the  fact  that  none  of  the  white  men  understood 
the  Eskimo  tongue.  The  same  was  the  case  in  1855, 
when  Janes  Anderson,  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, foHowing  Back's  route,  encouuiaed  them  on 
his  way  down  to  Montreal  Island  seeking  news  of 
the  Franklin  Expedition.  And  finally  there  was 
Sehwatka,  who  in  1879  passed  a  settlement  on  the 
Hayes  River  on  his  way  to  TH^g  William's  Land, 
likewise  in  search  of  news  as  to  the  fate  of  Franklin's 
men.  None  of  these  travellers  could  say  more  than 
that  they  had  come  upon  a  remarkable  people  in 
these  regions;  naturally  therefore,  I  was  eager  myself 
to  make  their  acquaintance. 

Miteq  and  one  of  the  Netsffik  natms  were  to  go 
on  to  the  trading  station  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, at  Kent  Peninsula,  taking  such  collections  as 
we  had  accumulated  up  to  date  and  bringing  back 
various  supplies,  notably  of  ammunition,  some  of 
that  intended  for  our  own  use  having  been  already 
disposed  of  in  the  way  of  exchange.  We  were  to 
meet  on,  the  west  coast  of  Kmg  William's  Land,  at 
tins  fwEfifrttmrot  <rf  Malenialik,  where  most  of  the 
aafchres  from  tfcai  district  would  then  be  assembled 
for  the  fishing  sod  caribou  hunting. 


native  called  Inugtufc,  with  his  wife  Nauluagjaq  and 


190          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

two  young  sons.  They  were  on  their  way  to  Lake 
Ftenkfin  to  barter  hide  and  blubber  for  powder  and 
among  the  iialaiadEskiioos  there.  Inugtukwasa 


skilful  hunter,  but  like  all  the  Netsilik,  a  very  poor 
driver.  And  he  proved  an  excellent  comrade  when  I 
learned  to  know  hmi  a  little  better.  At  first  I  was 
inclined  to  vegaxd  him  with  some  distrust,  owing 
perfjaps  to  what  I  had  learned  as  to  his  antecedents, 
He  had  obtained  his  present  wife  by  murdering  her 
husfoaiid,  Pujataq,  at  the  same  time  adopting  the 
two  sons  of  the  man  he  had  killed.  The  whole  family 
now  Evied  together  in  the  greatest  harmony,  and 
there  seensed  to  be  real  affection  between  them  aH 
waged—  'which  was  the  more  remarkable  as  the  two 
lads  would,  €n  arriving  at  man's  estate,  be  expected 
to  tafce  TOBgeasce  for  the  murder  of  their  father. 
Inugtnfc  himself  was  a  tnati  of  good  family  as  such 
tfeiiigsgoiniheseregicms,  and  it  was  currently  believed 
tliat  his  father  had  been  carriedup  to  heaven  "as 
thunder  and  lightaing"  when  he  died. 

AocoarHng  to  the  information  I  had  received,  the 
nearest  sefetlemeirt  of  the  UiJoahildialingmiut  was  at 
Itivnarfuk,  near  Lake  Frankfin,  the  same  spot  whei^ 
tiheyhadb^afotaid  in  1833  and  1855.  The  distance 
there  lo  tte  snow  hut  colony  at  south-west  of 


isg  of  the  3ist  of  May,  our  dogs 
picked  i^p  ^ie  sceaot  of  ^osme*hing  near  at  hand;  and 
we  weie  mm  jtd;  aboufc  tte  spot  where  we  expected 
to  fiad  tliaEEL  Sure  enough,  a  few  mintttes  later  we 
Ml  into  a  camp  of  nine  tents. 


AN  INNOCENT  PMOPLB  If* 

Despite  the  suddenness  of  our  appearance,  there  was 
nothing  of  the  shouting  and  conf tision  cttstoinaiy  on 
such  occasions.  They  could  see  at  once  from  our 
clothes,  our  sledges  and  the  niantiftr  in  which  our 
teams  were  harnessed,  that  we  were  strangers,  and 
from  a  distance,  but  there  was  no  rain  of  questions 
as  to  who  ire  wae  aad  wfant  ws  wanted,  or  the  like. 
The  naesi  of  the  porty  came  down  towards  us,  ao« 
^  bat  mGyving  qtoetly  and  with 
They  were  fee  1%  maa^  wdl  dressed, 


and  with  an  earnest,  aliaost  solemn  severity  of 
cottnteaaixse,  more  resembling  TmltAng  thai*.  Eskiaos. 

I  explained  who  I  was  and  what  was  my  object 
in  visiting  them.  The  language  occasioned  BO 
difficulty,  and  it  was  not  long  before  they  laid  aside 
their  first  formal  stiffness  and  began  helping  us 
to  fasten  the  dogs,  set  up  a  tent  and  get  our  goods  in 
order.  This  dooie,  the  spokesman 
name  w^s  Unattmitaoq,  stepped  tip  to  ii^aadkxikig 
me  straight  in  the  face,  asked: 

"  Are  you  one  of  those  white  men  who  forbid  the 
Eskimo  to  eater  thdr  teats?" 

I  explained  that  it  was  my  earnest  desire  to  learn 
as  mttch  as  possible  about  my  new  friends  in  the 
short  time  I  was  able  to  stay  there,  and  that  anyone 
who  eared  to  visit  me  would  be  welcome. 

A  imiriTO?r  of  approbation  greeted  this  armounoe- 
meet.  I  added,  that  such  trade  goods  and  other 
pgrope^aslhadwith:^ 

the  teat,  siooe  I  took  it  for  granted  that  they  wotild 
be  safe  thane.    Upoai  wiadi  Ikiiiilik,  oae  d  tJbe 


192          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

"Among  our  people,  it  is  only  dogs  that  steal/* 

I  spent  the  rest  of  that  day  improving  the  acquain- 
tance of  my  hosts.  They  had  made  a  favorable 
impression  oa  me  from  the  first,  and  it  was  a  relief 
indeed  to  find  oneself  among  people  positively  clean, 
clean  even  to  their  hands  and  feet,  after  the  indescrib- 
able dirtiness  of  the  Netsilingmiut.  They  were, 
moreover,  far  more  intelligent  and  quick  of  appre- 
hension, and  answered  questions  briskly  and  to  the 
point.  All  were  eager  to  give  me  information. 

They  were,  I  found,  not  altogether  unacquainted 
with  white  men  and  white  customs,  though  the  near- 
est trading  station  was  so  far  distant  that  it  some- 
times took  half  a  year  to  get  there  and  back.  The 
was  only  made  by  the  younger  men,  so  that 
ol  the  oider  ones  had  ever  seen  a  white  man 
fodfere. 

Writing  was  a  great  source  of  wonder  and  amuse- 
ment to  them,  and  nay  journal,  in  which  I  was 
constantly  making  notes,  occasioned  much  comment. 
All  were  delighted  with  the  fineness  of  the  paper 
leaves,  which  they  took  to  be  a  specially  delicate 
variety  of  s?rin.  And  when  I  wrote  down  what  they 
said  and  afterwards  read  it  aloud,  they  applauded; 
evideaotly,  tie  "creature"  had  a  good  memory! 

Tbe  inland  EsJdnio®,  of  the  Great  Fish  River,  or,  as 
>«|8D:  called,  from  tibe  name  of  its  discoverer, 
Rrw,  number  only  164  souls  in  all,  men, 
and  dhiMim.  They  divide  themselves 
aooosding  to  their  villages  into  three  groups,  the 
UlfaifaTcfialirigmitit  in  the  Delta  and  lower  reaches, 
especially  the  country  south  of  Lake  FrankHn,  the 


NULIALIK,   THE  MOST  SKILFUL  CARIBOU  HUNTER  ON   THE  GREAT  FISH  RIVER 

With  his  long  hair  about  his  ears,  and  circlet  of  white  caribou  skin,  he  looked  more  like 
an  Indian  than  an  Eskimo — as  did  almost  all  of  these  inland  folks. 


AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE  193 

Sangningajormiut  farther  tip  the  river  and  in  the 
district  between  Meadow  Bank  River  and  Baker 
Lake,  and  finally  the  Ualiardlet  right  tip  among 
the  great  inland  waters,  Lake  McDougaH,  Lake 
Garry  and  Lake  Pefiy,  which  they  caB  Imarjttaq, 
Qajarvik  and  Igdliviaq,  This  last  group  is  now 
dyingout,  and  atmibers  at  present  o«ily  28  so^.  All 
these  people  axe  entirety  independent  of  the  sea 
a$d  neper  move  down  to  the  coast.  UBS  bcmever, 
wm  not  always  the  case;  the  UaHareftet  tffied  to  go 
down  to  Queen  Maude  Gulf,  mostly  about  Ogden 
Bay,  for  the  seating,  white  the  others  went  down  to 
Elliot  Bay  and  as  far  along  as  Cape  Britannia. 

Now,  they  use  tallow  in  place  of  blubber  for  their 
lamps,  that  is,  for  lighting  purposes;  for  cooking  and 
heating  they  use  lichen  and  moss  and  a  kinrl  of 
heather.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  very  little 
cooking  dace,  most  of  their  food,  both  fish  and  meat, 
being  eaten  raw.  Also,  they  dry  their  wet  dothes 
on  the  body. 

The  temperature  here  is  for  several  months  of  tiie 
year  somewhere  between  minus  40°  and  minus  60° 
C.  Nevertheless,  these  people  declare  that  they  do 
not  feel  the  ootd  "much";  snow  htits  may  be  a  Httib 
cold  when  newly  built,  but  when  covered  with  a  good 
layer  of  fresh  snow  and  filled  with  live  human  bodies, 
they  SQO&  gpt  warm.  The  UtkuliildbLaliiigmitit,  in- 
deed,  regard  themselves  as  much  better  off  than  the 
NefcsafogBjitit.  FamiBe  is  not  unknown,  but  is  by 
130  meaos  of  freqttent  occurrence,  and  oaly  ocears 
when  a  loog  spd!  of  ertra  bad  wither  prcveaate  tlie 
men  from  hunting,  or  when  the  hmiting  itseJf  proves 


194          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

fruitless  both  for  caribou  among  the  bills  and  fish 
in  the  lakes. 

There  is  an  old  tradition  to  the  effect  that  the 
UtJaihikhalingmiut  were  once  a  great  people,  so 
atmiearous  that  the  hills  around  Lake  Franklin  were 
waled  in  the  smoke  of  their  cooking  fires.  They 
were  a  warlike  people,  constantly  fighting  with  their 
neighbors,  and  killing  among  themselves  was  of  fre- 
quent occurrence. 

As  an  illustration  both  of  the  spiritual  culture  and 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  revealed,  I  give  the  follow- 
ing account  of  an  interview  with  Ikinilik,  whom  I 
have  already  mentioned  as  one  of  the  elders  of  the 
tribe,  and  who  was,  aJso,  a  remarkable  personality. 

I  triad  to  explain  to  him  in  the  first  instance,  that 
I  was  interviewing  him  on  behalf  of  a  daily  news- 
paper; that  all  that  passed  between  us  would  be  made 
known  to  many  people  through  the  medium  of  "  talk- 
marks*'  such  as  he  had  seen  me  making  in  my  note 
books,  printed  on  sheets  of  the  fir**  "skin"  for  men  to 
learn  what  is  happening  each  day. 

But  this  in  itself  he  regarded  as  a  witticism,  a 
humorous  exaggeration;  the  world  of  the  white  men 
was  big,  no  doubt,  yet  it  could  not  after  all  be  bigger 
thaa  that  a  mm  might  learn  all  the  news  there  was 
by  mqukiflg  at  tbe  nearest  tent, 

In  tfee  fe$I0wi&g,  I  give  question  and  answer  word 
for  mx&f  according  to  my  own  notes  written  down,  cm 
tbe  s|x>k  ^  It  will  be  observed  that  the  parts  deaBng 
with  religious  beEefe  are  to  some  extent  a  repetition 
of  what  has  already  been  given  in  my  conversations 
with  Aua;  I  have  retained  these  however,  on  purpose, 


AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE  195 

as  it  seems  worthy  of  note  that  two  men  from  different 
parts,  and  of  different  types,  should  express  almost 
identical  views  on  the  most  important  probkins  of  life. 

Tkinilik  settled  himself  comfortably  among  the  soft 
caribou  skins,  and  lighting  his  pipe  —  the  bowl  of 
which  was  about  the  size  of  a  small  thimble—  started 
off  with  &  laughing  aCusioii: 

"From  what  you  my,  it  would  seem  thai  folk  in 
that  far  country  of  yottrs  eat  talk  rnaiis  just  as  we 
eat  caribou  meat."  And  cootcndbog  the  simile, 
he  went  on:  "Well,  now,  begin  with  your  qoestioos 
and  get  your  fire  going;  then  I  win  cut  tip  the  meat 
and  put  it  in  the  pot." 

I  began  accordingly*  "Tell  me  something  about 
your  religion.  What  do  you  believe?" 

But  at  this  all  those  present  answered  in  chorus,  so 
that  I  was  barely  able  to  distanguisii  IkiniBk's  voice: 

"WedoootbeEeve,  wecmlyfear.  And  roost  <rf  all 
we  fear  Nulkjttk/' 

I  tried  again  to  explain  to  the  party  what  an  inter- 
view was-  "Only  cue  must  aas*wrfff  I  said,  and 
hoping  they  would  take  this  as  final,  I  went  on  : 


But  every  boy  and  girl  in  the  place  knew  something 
of  Nuliajuk  from  their  nursery  rfnyaaes;  it  was  too 
much  to  expect  them  to  keep  silence,  AH  wanted  to 
tefl  what  they  knew,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that 
could  make  himself  heard  above  the  rest, 
name  W3  give  to  tbe  Mother  of 


Beasts,    AD  the  game  we  himt  o^ 
her  come  aU  tte  earifocm^ 

fishes/1 


196          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

I  asked  him  then:  "What  else  do  you  fear?" 

And  this  time  the  others  refrained  from  joining  in, 
Apparently  they  had  at  last  understood  that  the 
interview  was  a  matter  between  Ikinilik  and  myself. 
Urinililc  answered: 

"We  fear  those  things  which  are  about  us  and  of 
which  we  have  no  sure  knowledge;  as,  the  dead,  and 
malevolent  ghosts,  and  the  secret  misdoings  of  the 
heedless  ones  among  ourselves/* 

"Do  all  human  beings  turn  into  evil  spirits  when 
they  die?" 

"No;  only  when  those  nearest  to  them  have 
neglected  to  observe  the  customs  laid  down  from  the 
time  of  death  until  the  soul  has  left  the  body.  '  ' 

"And  wiben  does  the  soul  leave  the  body?" 

shook  his  head  and  smiled,  with  an 


expression  almost  of  pitying  condescension  in  his 
fine,  wise  eyes:  to  think  that  a  grown  man  should  be 
so  inquisitive!  The  onlookers,  too,  were  smiling  as 
he  answered. 

"If  it  is  a  woman,  five  days  after  death;  if  a  man, 
four/' 

But  I  was  not  to  be  deterred  from  my  questioning, 
aadwenton: 

"Is  there  anything  else  you  fear?" 

"  Yes,  tbe  spirits  of  earth  and  air.  Some  are  small 
as  bees^and  midges,  others  great  and  terrible  as 
nKJtmtains- 

"  Whathappeostothesoelwhenitleavestliebody?  " 

^HdniBk  shifted  ia  his  place,  aad  the  wrinkles  round 

imeyesdeepenedaKttle;  of  aHtheridiodoasqttestiQas. 

**Whea  people  die,"  he  began,  in  his  slow,  rich 


AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE  197 

voice,  "they  are  carried  by  the  moon  up  to  the  land 
of  heaven  and  live  there  in  the  eternal  hunting 
grounds.  We  can  see  their  windows  from  on  earth, 
as  the  stars.  But  beyond  this  we  know  very  little  of 
the  ways  of  t&e  dead.  Some  few  of  the  angakoqs 
in  former  times  made  journeys  to  the  land  of  heaven, 
and  told  what  they  saw.  They  visited  the  moon, 
and  in  every  case  were  there  shown  into  a  house  with 
two  rooms.  Here  they  were  invited  to  eat  of  most 
deEcate  food,  the  entrails  of  caribou;  but  at  the 
moment  the  visitor  reaches  out  his  hand  to  take 
it,  his  helping  spirit  strikes  it  away.  For  if  he  should 
eat  of  anything  in  the  land  of  the  dead,  he  wiQ  never 
return.  The  dead  live  happily;  those  who  have 
visited  their  land  have  seen  them  latighing  and  play- 
ing happily  together. 

"There  was  once  a  woman  named  Nananuaq;  she 
died,  and  was  carried  off  by  the  moon.  But  she  did 
not  stay  long  in  the  taod  of  the  dead;  Hie  moon 
changed  bar  into  a  man  and  sent  her  bade  to  her 
husband.  The  Imsb&ad  was  veiy  pleased  to  have 
his  wife  bode  again,  but  was  sorely  dssap$x>mted  to 
find  that  she  would  not  sleep  with  him.  Sbe  told 
him  what  had  happened,  and  when  be  had  assured 
himself  that  it  was  the  truth,  he  was  so  angry  that  he 
to  MH  her.  He  went  out  of  the  house  to 


a  hote  in  the  ice:  *I  mtist  have  water  to  drink,* 
he  saxl,  *for  that  is  the  custom  after  one  has  died.* 
fiifc  the  woman  fed  away  to  her  graaddiild,  who 
lived  oear  by,  aael  when  bar  Imsband  came  after  feer 
to  fetch  her  back,  sfce  HSed  him  as  he  eatered 
passage, 


196          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

I  asked  him  then:  "What  else  do  you  fear?" 
And  this  time  the  others  refrained  from  joining  in* 
Apparently  they  had  at  last  understood  that  the 
interview  was  a  matter  between  Ikinilik  and  myself  , 
answered: 


"We  fear  those  things  which  axe  about  us  and  of 
which  we  have  no  sure  knowledge;  as,  the  dead,  and 
malevolent  ghosts,  and  the  secret  misdoings  of  the 
heedless  ones  among  ourselves/* 

"Do  all  human  beings  turn  into  evil  spirits  when 
they  die?  " 

"No;  only  when  those  nearest  to  them  have 
neglected  to  observe  the  customs  laid  down  from  the 
time  of  death  ttntil  the  soul  has  left  the  body  .  '  * 

"And  when  does  the  soul  leave  the  body?" 

TkmfliV  shook  his  head  and  smiled,  with  an 
expression  almost  of  pitying  condescension  in  his 
fine,  wise  eyes:  to  think  that  a  grown  man  should  be 
so  inquisitive!  The  onlookers,  too,  were  smiling  as 
he  answered, 

"If  it  is  a  woman,  five  days  after  death;  if  a  man 
four." 

But  I  was  not  to  be  deterred  from  my  questioning, 
aadwenton: 

"Is  there  anything  else  you  fear?" 

**  Yes,  the  spirits  of  earth  and  air.  Some  are  small 
as  bees  and  midges,  others  great  and  terrible  as 
motmtams." 

"WJiafchappeos  to  thesoulwhenit  leaves  thebody?" 
Ttrinittlr  shifted  in  his  place,  and  the  wrinkles  round 
epe«ie<iaEttle;  of  afltheridiodousqu^tions. 
people  die,"  he  began,  in  his  slow,  rich 


AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE  197 

voice,  "they  are  carried  by  the  moon  tap  to  the  laad 
of  heaven  and  live  there  in  the  eternal  bunting 
grounds*  We  can  see  their  windows  from  on  earth, 
as  the  stars.  But  beyond  this  we  know  very  Ettle  of 
the  ways  of  the  dead.  Some  few  of  the  aogakoqs 
in  former  times  made  journeys  to  the  land  of  heaveaa, 
and  told  what  they  saw.  They  visited  the  moon, 
and  in  every  case  were  there  shown  into  a  house  with 
two  rooms.  Here  they  were  invited  to  eat  of  most 
defecate  food,  the  entrails  of  caribou;  but  at  the 
moment  the  visitor  reaches  out  his  hand  to  take 
it,  his  helping  spirit  strikes  it  away.  For  if  he  should 
eat  of  anything  in  the  land  of  the  dead,  he  will  never 
return.  The  dead  Eve  happily;  those  who  have 
visited  their  land  have  seen  them  laughing  and  play- 
ing happily  together. 

"There  was  once  a  woman  named  Nanaauaq;  she 
died,  and  was  carried  off  by  the  moon.  But  she  dM 
not  stay  long  in  the  kad  of:  tibe  dead;  the  moon 
changed  her  into  a  man  aod  seat  her  back  to  her 
husband.  Tbe  hcE&aod  was  viery  |jleased  to  have 
his  wife  back  again,  but  was  sorely  disappointed  to 
find  that  she  would  not  sleep  with  him.  She  toM 
him  what  had  happened,  and  when  he  had  assured 
himself  that  it  was  the  truth,  he  was  so  angry  that  he 
determined  to  fcfll  her.  He  went  out  of  the  house  to 
col  a  hole  m  the  ice:  1  must  have  water  to  drink/ 
be  said,  *for  that  is  the  custom  after  one  has  died,* 
'  lad  away  to  bar  gjsanddbild,  who 

rii*$ 

to  fetdi  her  bade,  ske  Hited  Mm  as  be  mfcered  t&e 
passage. 


198          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

"This  woman  told  her  fellows  on  earth  many 
things  about  life  after  death,  and  it  is  from  her  that 
we  have  our  knowledge.  Our  angakoqs  nowadays  do 
Bot  know  very  much,  they  only  talk  a  lot,  and  that  is 
all  they  can  do;  they  have  no  special  time  of  sttidy 
and  initiation,  and  all  their  power  is  obtained  from 
dreams,  visions  or  sickness.  I  once  asked  a  man  if  he 
was  an  aogakoq,  and  he  answered:  'My  sleep  is 
dreamless,  and  I  have  never  been  ill  in  my  HfeT  Now 
that  we  have  moved  up  inland  away  from  the  sea 
we  do  not  need  to  bother  ourselves  about  what  is 
tabu  in  connection  with  sea-beasts,  and  then  also 
we  have  guns,  which  makes  all  hunting  much  easier 
thanitwas.  Young  hunters  nowaday  shave  too  easy 
a  time  of  it  to  trouble  about  consulting  wizards.  In 
the  oldea  days  when  our  food  for  the  whole  winter 
d&peoded  on  the  autumn  hunting  at  the  sacred  fords, 
it  was  a  very  different  matter;  all  the  regular  obser- 
vances and  many  particular  ones  in  addition  were 
dictated  daily  by  the  angakoqs  who  knew  all  about 
such  things.  But  now  we  have  f  orgotten  all  the  old 
spells  and  magic  songs,  aad  you  will  find  no  amulets 
sewn  up  in  our  inner  garments.  The  people  have 
food  enough,  and  do  not  bother  about  their  souls." 

This  opeaas  the  way  for  a  question  of  importance, 

"What  do  jm  understand  by  'the  soul?"1 1  asked. 

TfcimKk  WES  plainly  surprised  that  I  could  ask 
stadi  a  tiling;  nevertheless  he  answered  patiently: 

"It  is  some  thing  beyond  understanding,  that  whicii 
makes  UK  a  human  being." 

"Caa  you  teH  me  any  more  about  the  life  after 
desih?" 


TWO  LITTLE  GIRLS  FROM  LAKE  FRANKLIN 


AN  INNOCENT  PEOPLE  199 

"Only  that  we  remain  forever  as  we  were  whea  we 
died;  old  people  do  not  become  young,  and  the  young 
do  not  grow  old;  children  do  not  grow  ttp  at  alL" 

Here  the  interview  was  brought  to  a  dose  by  the 
equivalent  of  the  dinner  gong,  a  summons  which 
could  not  be  ignored  It  was  nnsreover,  my  last 
public  appearance  among  these  friendly  people,  as  I 
was  leaving  the  same  night.  The  river  was  breaking 
ttp  and  difficult  to  pass  already. 

Looking  back  upon  my  short  stay  amosig  them,  I 
cannot  help  noting  that  the  esteem  ajad  admiration  I 
felt  for  them  at  the  time  has  been  in  no  wise  impaired 
by  subsequent  impressions  elsewhere*  I  shall  always 
look  upon  the  Utkuhikhalingmiut  as  the  handsomest 
and  most  hospitable,  as  well  as  the  most  cultured 
people  of  all  those  I  met  with  ttemghout  the  whole 
length  of  my  journey;  and  the  cleanest  and  mosfc 
contented  to  boot. 

Oddly  enough,  the  only  Monsatioii  I  h&d  abani 
them  prior  to  my  visit  was  from  a  tettar  writtoa  by- 
Captain  Joe  Bernard,  published  in  Diaisioiid  Jemaess* 
book  on  the  Copper  Eskimos.  Bernard,  W$K>  woit 
tiptoVid»riaLandini9i8  and  wintered  tibere,  based 
his  opinion  on  the  NetsJlingmiut,  and  summarily 
disposed  of  the  others  in  the  following  terse  dictum: 

"The  UikuhiMialingmiiit  are  probably  the  most 
nrisemble  people  in  the  winter  tame  I  haw  ever  seen 
or  heard  of." 

Which  shows  bow  opmiQQS  may  dSier—  Mid 
capful  one  should  be  in  foramg  aa  ogtemm  as 
one  tribe  from  what  one  has  heaas! 


It  was  a  little  affeer  midnight  wfaea  I  sfcarte*^ 


2oo  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  wfcole  village,  men  and  women,  turned  out  to  see 
us  off,  wishing  us  all  that  was  good  out  of  their  own 
abundant  content.  Hie  mountains  were  already 
bathed  in  cold  white  fight,  and  we  were  anxious 
to  get  well  out  onto  the  sea  ice  before  the  heat  of  the 
sum  made  the  work  too  fatiguing  for  our  teams. 
Amid  a  chorus  of  farewells  from  our  friends  we  struck 
off  over  the  great  water,  One  might  almost  say: 
through  it;  for  a  mush  of  sodden  snow  and  water  came 
threshing  up  over  the  sledges,  and  we  ourselves  were 
soaked  through  at  once,  having  to  go  down  on  our 
knees  in  order  to  heave  the  sledges  dear  when  they 
stack  fast. 

Altogether  about  as  wretched  going  as  one  could 
wish  for  the  starting  of  a  journey,  but  we  took  little 
heed  o€  it,  and  laughed  as  we  plunged  into  the  icy 
mess  through  which  we  had  to  toil  that  day.  The 
snow-broth  seethed  about  the  runners,  and  we  drove 
through  it  singing. 


A.      C 


CHAPTER  XV 

TRULY  THANKFUL 

/"VN  the  I3th  of  June  we  made  King  William's  Land, 
^^  at  Malerualik,  the  spot  where  we  had  arranged 
to  meet  Miteq  on  his  return  from  Kent  Peninsula. 
Miteq  was  not  there,  but  we  found  instead  our  old 
friend  Qaqortingneq,  together  with  a  man  named 
Itqilik  (which  means  "The  Indian/")  who  had  come 
all  the  way  from  Bellot  Strait,  having  spent  several 
years  in  North  Somerset.  These  were  just  the  people 
I  wanted  to  meet,  and  learning  at  the  same  time  that 
all  the  Netsilikfolk  from  all  villages  between  Adelaide 
Peninsula  and  Boothia  Isthmus  would  be  gathering 
in  King  William's  Land,  I  decided  that  I  could  not  *$e> 
better  than  spend  the  summer  here,  I  had  always 
wanted  to  learn  the  ways  of  ^ome  primitive  tribe 
more  t&oroughly  than  I  had  been  able  to  do  as  yet, 
and  the  region  in  which  I  now  f  ottod  mysetf  was  cane 
of  the  most  isolated  aad  inaccessible  tiiroughotit  the 
whole  Eskimo  territory.  lYoe,  it  was  not  altogether 
troexplored,  since  Schwatka,  Roold  Amundsen  aad 
Godfred  Hansen  had  been  heane  already,  but  their 
objects  w€^^  not  the  same  as  mine,  and  without  in 


predecessors,  I  might  fairly  say  I  had  struck  a 
field  as  f  ar  as  nay  own  braadh  <rf  sfei^w 
It  was  pleasaat  ,  ate>,  to  be  able  to  look 


201 


202          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

longer  stay  than  hitherto,  and  make  plans  that 
allowed  for  good  long  spells  of  work,  instead  of  hurry- 
ing from  place  to  place. 

On  the  20th  of  June  I  made  my  first  reconnaissance 
of  the  immediate  surroundings.  The  country  rises 
as  one  moves  inland,  in  terraces  marking  the  site 
of  earlier  beaches,  with  long  narrow  lakes  in  the 
hollows  between,  fed  by  small  streams  from  the  melt- 
ing snow.  There  are  a  few  ranges  of  hills,  but  as  soon 
as  one  gets  away  from  the  sea,  the  country  at  this 
time  of  year  presents  the  appearance  of  a  great 
grassy  plain-  Spring  was  at  its  height,  and  the  earth 
on  every  side  was  bursting  into  life.  Geese,  duck  and 
waders  were  gathered  in  thousands  on  the  lakes  and 
marshy  ground;  ted  patches  of  saxifrage  glowed 
among  the  rocks,  the  first  of  flowers  to  greet  the  light 
and  warmth  of  the  sun. 

A  few  kilometres  out  from  camp  I  came  suddenly 
upon  a  whole  ruined  village  of  stone  houses  of  the 
ancient  Eskimo  type.  I  had  already  heard  from 
the  natives  elsewhere  that  such  were  to  be  found  in 
these  parts,  but  had  not  seen  any  myself .  No  per- 
manent winter  dwellings  had  indeed  been  recorded 
from  hese*  aad  it  was  now  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  examine  these,  by  way  of  supplementing  our 
laaieriai  from  the  exeavatkms  in  the  Hudson  Bay 
district.  Plainly,  I  could  hardly  have  chosen  a 


A  day  cr  two  after  tfek  discovery  I  made  a  short 
to  Nnnariassaq,  a®  island  off  the  south- 


cast  coast  ol  Qcieea  Maud  Gulf.    Ifere,  in  a  little 
I  found  a  whole  row  of  stone  cairns,  and  on 


TRULY  THANKFUL  203 

enquiry,  found  that  they  were  of  somewhat  curious 
origin,  being,  indeed,  monuments  erected  to  the 
memory  of  the  dead.  It  appears  that  some  wooden 
had  gone  out  spearing  salmon  on  the  ice  while  their 
husbands  were  away  hunting  caribou  inland.  The 
ice  broke  up  suddenly  and  carried  them  out  to  sea, 
one  only  making  her  way  back  to  land.  Each 
of  the  men  then  built  a  monument  "as  a  triimte  of 
respect  to  the  souls  of  the  dead."  I  was  surprised 
to  find  such  an  observance  among  a  people  who,  as  a 
general  rule,  do  not  even  bury  their  dead,  bat  lay 
them  out  on  the  bare  ground. 

One  old  man  here  offered  me  meat  for  my  dogs  if  I 
could  let  liT-m  have  some  ammunition.  This  m&n» 
whose  name  was  Amajorsuk,  was  the  proud  possessor 
of  a  wooden  leg  which  he  had  made  and  fitted  for 
himself.  Ten  years  before,  when  gttns  were  first 
introduced  at  Baker  Lake,  he  had  the  misforttme  to 
lose  one  foot  by  an  accidental  sfaok  Efe  sow  went 
about  with  a  kind  of  artificial  kg  made  from  the 
crosspieces  of  a  sledge  lashed  round  the  thigh  and 
padded  with  caribou  skin  below  the  fcoee,  the  whole 
ending  in  a  "  foot M  of  musk  ox  horn,  which  served  its 
purpose  excellently.  Amajorsuk  himself  was  not  in 
the  least  disheartened  by  his  handicap;  he  was  indeed, 
a  BK)6t  cheesy  soul,  mid  a  skilful  hunter  as  wdL 
Btit  it  says  nmch  for  the  courage  and  etidtii^nee  sf 
these  people,  that  a  man  should  have  gone  thrcmgh  all 
the  suffering  and  hardship  the  aeddeai  must  have 
caused  him  In  the  first  place,  and  tJhea  ha ve  leaned 
to  shift  for  himself  and  bear  his  part  witii  ibe  nest 
tmdear  sudi  oonditioos. 


204          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

On  the  ist  of  July,  Anarulunguaq  and  I  set  to 
work  on  the  ruins  at  Malerualik,    The  natives  there 
by  no  means  sympathized  with  our  interest  in  these 
remains,  holdbg  that  such  things  were  best  left 
alone,    Moreover,  they  knew  we  should  have  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  fiaading  food  here  at  this  time  of 
year.    Already  numbers  had  left  for  the  interior, 
where  the  fishing  season  was  now  about  to  begin. 
By  the  $th  of  July  the  place  was  deserted  save  for  our 
own  fittlfi  party,    My  two  hunters  went  out  each  day 
after  seal,  while  I  grubbed  about  among  the  ruins, 
By  the  25th,   the  position  had  become  critical. 
Despite  all  our  efforts,  it  was  impossible  to  get  meat 
eooogji  to  feed  oar  dogs  as  long  as  we  remained 
here*    Fortunately,  however,  Anarulunguaq  and  I 
had  worked  hard  at  our  excavations  in  the  meantime, 
aaod  felt  justified  in  shifting  our  quarters  in  search 
of  other  fdk  and  other  fare. 

With  ourselves,  my  two  hunters  and  their  families, 
we  made  quite  a  little  caravan  when  we  set  off,  taking 
with  us  tents,  sleeping  bags  and  rugs,  cooking  utensils 
and  some  extra  footwear.  The  dogs  were  called 
into  requisition  this  time  as  beasts  of  burden,  and 
their  padk-saddles  caused  us  some  difficulty  at  first. 
Once  they  have  grown  accustomed  to  the  work  how- 
eror,  «togs  can  easily  carry  a  load  of  25-30  kilos  each 
&r  a  long  day's  inarch. 

Q0&  day  we  came  ttpon  ahtige  flock  of  geese,  moult- 
ing and  unable  to  fly.  Being  short  of  ammunition, 

let  i&e  dogs  loose,  and  a  n&omeirt  later  we  had  a 
of  binds. 


TRULY  THANKFUL  205 

and  the  last  remains  of  some  old  rotten  blubber  was 
looked  on  as  a  treat.  Altogether*  we  were  short  of 
quite  a  number  of  things;  we  had  so  tea,  coffee, 
sugar  and  no  tobacco.  living  as  we  did  chiefly  on 
raw  meat,  and  going  about  with  an  aftertaste  of  suet 
or  blubber  in  one's  mouth,  it  was  hard  to  be  deprived 
of  one's  pipe  at  the  end  of  the  day.  The  only  luxury 
we  possessed  was  some  saccharine;  and  with  a  makse- 
shift  herb  that  grows  here  and  there  we  could  turn  out 
something  the  color  of  tea,  and  tastiiig  of  nothing 
particular. 

On  the  5th  of  August  we  readied  Amitsoq,  the 
principal  fishing  station.  I  had  heard  so  much  about 
it  during  title  past  two  months,  that  the  reality 
pixwed  rather  a  disappointment.  The  whole  en- 
campment consisted  of  but  five  poor  tents,  and  the 
reports  of  the  yield  up  to  date  were  not  encouraging; 
caribou  few,  salmon  scarce,  and  no  food  for  the  dogs! 
We  had  come  too  early;  the  fishery  would  not  begin 
tiH  the  isth  of  August,  and  would  be  practically  ®ror 
by  the  end  of  the  month. 

We  stayed  here  a  week,  during  which  time  I  wrote 
down  over  fifty  of  the  native  stories,  and  obtained  a 
great  deal  of  valuable  information  as  to  ancient  cus- 
toms and  ways*  We  managed  to  shoot  six  cariboo, 
which  gave  an  ample  supply  of  meat  for  ourselves 
aod  the  rest  of  the  camp* 

I  have  never  m  my  life  see&  half -starved, 
wretchedly  dad,  daH~rfddm  people  so  cheerily 
heedless  of  their  troubles,  so  f uH  of  fttn  aad  saenv 
ment  tmder  the  most  Sooa&of 

the  children  were  positively  in  rags,  their  kgs,  arnas 


206          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 


hands  red  and  swollen  with  the  cold,  yet  they 
pkyed  about  as  if  unconscious  of  it  all.  The  native 
idea  of  happiness  in  the  Hereafter  is  a  life  where  all 
is  play-  And  they  seemed  to  be  well  on  the  way  to 
realizing  it  here,  for  men  and  women  as  well  as  child- 
ren spent  five  or  six  hours  of  each  day  playing  games. 
The  woric  on  which  they  relied  for  their  daily 
sustenance  was  confined  to  three  visits  per  diem  to 
the  salmon  pool,  each  occupying  perhaps  ten  minutes; 
and  even  this  was  more  like  a  game  than  serious  work, 
to  judge  from  the  laughter  and  fun  that  went  on. 

The  salmon  fishing  was  worked  on  a  simple  plan. 
Tbe  fish  were  found  in  a  stream  connecting  two  lakes; 
the  stream  was  dammed  and  a  shallow  basin  built 
with  stones,  leaving  an  entrance  which  was  allowed 
to  remain  open  all  day  until  the  signal  was  given; 
it  was  then  closed,  ami  the  whole  party,  armed  with 
fish  speais,  plunged  in  and  set  about  spearing  the 
fish,  traps  being  set  to  catch  any  that  might  other- 
wise escape.  Later  on  in  the  summer,  or  early 
autumn,  the  fish  would  be  taken  in  such  quantities 
that  each  family  amid,  in  the  space  of  a  fortoight, 
obtain  something  like  a  thousand  kilos  of  excellent 
fish,  which  was  storied  for  the  winter. 

It  was  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  fuel  of  any 
scfcrt  at  AfQtitsoq.  The  Cassiope  which  is  ttsed  in 
some  parts  is  not  found  here,  the  nearest  subs&tate 
beitig  Dryas,  which  is  moreover  in  bloom  at  this  titee 
of  year*  It  is  most  difficult  to  keep  alight,  aad  one 
to  be  constantly  blowing  it.  It  took  Aijara- 
five  hours  to  cook  a  potful  of  fish  aad  boi 

fcefctle  of  water  in  this  fasfakfcu    ItisBot  stirprismg 


TRULY  THANKFUL 

then  that  most  prefer  to  eat  their  food  raw.  Raw 
meat  tastes  very  nice  really,  but  I  never  quite  got 
accustomed  to  eating  raw  fish  fresh  from  the  water. 
The  fishing  here  often  provides  those  reserves  o£ 
food  that  may  be  indispensable  in  winter  should  the 
caribou  hunting  fail,  and  the  place  is  regarded  as 
sacred,  just  as  are  certain  spots  particularly  fm- 
qt&eated  by  the  caribou.  Strict  rules  had  to  be 
observed.  Eating  of  majrow-bones,  or  fresh  caribou 
brains,  was  forbidden;  the  heads,  if  brought  to  the 
spot,  had  to  be  picked  dean  and  dropped  in  an 
adjacent  stream  where  there  were  no  fish.  No 
needlework  was  to  be  done  in  the  tents,  nor  might 
the  men  attend  to  their  fishing  gear  there.  No 
caribou  skins  old  or  new,  might  be  worked  on;  not 
a  tear  might  be  mended  nor  a  worn  spot  patched, 
Consequently,  the  whole  party  went  about  in 
their  ragged  last  year's  garments.  The  only 
kind  of  sewing  allowed  was  for  the 


of  footwear,  and  the  hide  for  this  purpose  had  to  be 
cut  beforehand.  This  work,  aaid  ibe  necessary 
repairs  to  fishing  i 


at  a  particular  spot  away  from  the  camp.  Most 
of  the  party  gathered  here  when  not  sleeping  or  at 
their  games. 

These  gauges  were  of  a  very  simple  character,  bttt 
served  their  purpose  as  a  means  of  exercise  and 
feecpiog  warm.  A  favorite  m&  was  a  mister®  ef 
hide-and-seek  and  "touch."  Another  was  "fceeprag 
silence,"  the  one  who  langfas  first  beasg  giwa  a 
comkal  nick-name  which  he  is  o&figed  to  ^swer  te> 
for  the  rest  of  the  day  .  The^i  th^e  is  the  gaiae  of 


208          A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

"Bear"  in  which  one  player  personates  the  bear, 
crawling  about  on  all  fours,  while  the  rest  dance 
about  him  and  he  attacks  them  as  best  he  can, 
There  was  one  game  of  ball  which  caused  no  end 
of  fan  and  excitement.  It  is  played  by  partners  two 
aad  two  against  the  rest,  each  of  a  pair  trying  to 
throw  to  the  other.  All  is  fair  in  this  game,  collaring, 
tripping,  charging  from  beyond,  and  all  is  taken 
in  good  part.  Young  and  old  joined  in  the  game, 
and  once  started,  it  would  go  on  for  the  rest  of  the  day 
and  be  started  again  the  next.  Husband  and  wife 
were  generally  partners;  and  it  was  really  touching 
to  see  the  affection  between  the  pairs.  I  have  randy 
met  with  people  where  the  men  were  so  proud  of 
their  wives,  the  women  on  their  part  being  tireless 
in  t&elr  praise  of  their  respective  husbands. 

A  curious  form  of  pastime,  popular  especially 
among  the  children,  was  the  Tunangussartut,  or 
"spirit  game,"  which  consists  in  "taking  off"  the 
seances  of  the  anga&oq,  often  in  a  really  humorous 
manner.  Spirits  are  invoked,  imaginary  enemies 
battled  with  and  vanquished,  exactly  in  the  grown- 
up manner;  the  dread  of  evil  powers  is  caricatured  to 
the  life,  and  prayers  and  spells  uttered  word  for  word 
as  in  cases  of  actual  pail  or  distress.  The  whole 
thing  was  iaak  blasphemy;  and  yet  the  grown-ups 
iooidBg  m  would  gasp  and  rock  aad  hold  their  sides 
witfe  latighter  f  as  if  they  fottnd  a  certain  satisfaction  in 
tfeeir  young  hopefuls  make  fun  of  what  to 


tibesa  was  solemn  earnest  And  them  perhaps,  a  few 
hours  later,  a  sudden  ^disposition,  or  a  bad  dream, 
wooM  eaffl  afl  the  adtilts  together  in  a  real  seance, 


TRULY  THANKFUL  209 

none  the  less  solemn  now  for  the  comic  interlude  just 
past*  I  asked  one  of  my  friends  here  how  it  could  be 
that  they  were  not  afraid  of  incurring  the  anger  of  the 
spirits  by  these  disrespectful  harlequinades.  But 
he  answered  that  "of  course"  the  spirits  understood 
it  was  only  in  fun;  and  surely  they  knew  how  to  take 
a  joke!  He  seemed,  indeed,  astonished  that  anyone 
could  raise  the  question  at  alL 

On  the  lath  of  August,  to  my  regret,  I  Mt  obliged 
to  take  leave  of  my  friends  here  and  try  hunting 
elsewhere.  We  divided  our  party  into  two,  Anaru- 
lunguaq  and  I,  with  one  of  the  hunters,  returning  to 
Malerualik,  while  the  other,  with  half  the  dogs, 
went  over  towards  Gjoa  Harbor  to  see  if  better 
fortune  anight  be  had  there. 

We  reached  Malerualik  once  more  on  the  17th,  and 
found  the  goods  we  had  left  there  untouched—  a 
matter  by  no  means  certain  unless  special  precautions 
are  taken  to  protect  stores  from  being  pksndefsd  by 
the  various  prowling  beasts.  It  was  good  to  nee  the 
sea  again;  and  there  was  stiH  some  wodc  to  fee  4oae. 
Anarulunguaq  and  I  bad  another  spdfl  at  tfce  ruins, 
but  we  were  not  suffered  to  go  CHI  very  kxng.  Qt*  the 
25th  of  August,  we  had  a  gate  £ram  tibe  isoiiMflest, 
bringing  with  it  the  first  saow  and  frost.  We  had, 
however,  got  through  most  of  the  excavation  worfc 
aod  oQEeefced  a  fine  jofc  of  material. 

With  the  autusm  BOW  $e**iiigii^ 
indoor  wsdc  I  bad  siffl  to  do  m  writi^;  cwfe 
and  oteervatioos  tip  to  da*e,  I  d$ei$ed  that  w&  |pd 


(Cape  York)  type.     Anaartilttugiiaq  m&  I 


2io          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

work  on  this  on  the  evening  of  the  29th,  most  of 
the  building  being  done  by  Anarulunguaq,  who  is 
an  expert  at  the  work,  while  I  brought  up  stone  from 
the  ruins.  Among  her  people  it  is  customary  for 
the  women  to  build  the  winter  houses,  while  the  men 
are  out  hunting  in  the  autumn.  By  the  3ist,  we  had 
the  place  complete  save  for  the  final  dressing  of  turf 
that  was  to  cover  the  rough  stone.  At  this  stage 
some  old  acquaintances  appeared  on  the  scene, 
Alorneq,  Itqilik,  and  another  named  Oqortoq.  They 
helped  us  with  the  finishing  touches,  and  the  same 
night  we  were  able  to  serve  up  a  modest  banquet  in 
oar  new  quarters. 

Hie  talk  soon  turned  to  the  subject  of  Miteq  and 
faisfailtire  to  appear.  Oqortoq^swifewasanangakoq 
of  SQUIB  note,  and  had  moreover,  a  few  days  before, 
found  a  bit  of  lead  cm  the  shore  of  a  stream.  The 
kad  had  probably  been  dropped  by  some  caribou 
hunter,  but  it  was  now  regarded  as  a  special  token 
from  the  spirits,  such  as  may  sometimes  be  accorded 
to  those  specially  favored.  A  great  invocation  was 
therefore  held,  resulting  in  the  intelligence  that  Miteq 
was  on  his  way  home,  and  not  far  away;  we  were 
farther  Informed  that  he  had  killed  two  bears  on  the 
way,  aiid  had  encountered  various  difficulties,  not 
specified* 

This  seemed  encouraging,  and  lifcely  enough  but 
was  some  doubt  among  the  rest  of  the  party 
yet.  It  was  openly  asserted  that  we  should 
see  Miteq  again;  he  and  his  <x>mpanion  must 
certamty  have  been  murdered  long  since  by  the 


TRULY  THANKFUL  211 

Ottr  guests  had  come  down  to  visit  some  caches 
they  had  laid  down  dtiring  the  spring.  On  leaving, 
each  of  them  presented  me  with  a  stick  of  tobacco; 
which,  by  the  way,  they  had  originally  bought  from 
me  at  our  first  meeting.  I  was  the  better  able  to 
appreciate  the  kindness  of  the  gift  in  that  I  knew  it 
amounted  to  half  their  own  supply,  and  aH  three  wwe 
ardent  smokers. 

Another  commodity  now  running  short  with  us  was 
the  very  ordinary  box  of  matches.  Matches  were 
frequently  demanded  in  payment  when  I  was  buying 
amulets,  and  as  the  fresh  supply  Miteq  was  to  have 
brought  up  had  not  yet  arrived,  we  found  ourselves 
now  reduced  to  a  ration  of  two  matches  per  diem. 
Anarulunguaq  managed,  however,  by  keeping  peat 
embers  on  the  hearth  from  one  time  of  using  to  the 
next.  After  all,  one  can  always  manage  to  get  a 
light  native  fashion,  though  it  savors  somewhat  of 
thestoneage.  More  serious  was  the  Jade  of  ammuni- 
tion for  our  guns,  now  that  winter  was  dose  afe  hand. 

The  3rd  of  September  was  fine,  with  a  dear  sky, 
a  slight  frost  and  a  faint  breeze  finom  the  west. 
Anartdtmguaq  and  I  were  sitting  outside  the  teat 
gazing  out  over  the  water  in  the  quiet  of  the  after- 
noon, when  Anarulunguaq  suddenly  brake  oat 
excitedly: 

"Look,  look,  what  is  that?    I  i&0«gfat  it  was  low 
water,  and  there  is  a  reef  I  am  sure  was  not 
before.    Look,  it  is  moving!" 

Ste  pointed  across  to 
ttefofemd  of  Eta;  and  tfeete 
thing  dark  in  the  water.   1 1  was  a  aiiall  caooe,  making 


212          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

in  towards  us.  KayaJks  are  only  used  in  fresh  water 
lakes  in  this  region,  and  are  never  seen  out  at  sea, 
There  were  two  men  in  this  one;  they  could  only  be 
Miteq  and  his  companion.  We  had  been  looking  out 
for  tfaem  since  the  middle  of  June,  and  now  that  they 
were  actually  in  sight  it  seemed  to  take  our  breath 
away. 

I  got  out  my  glass;  sure  enough  it  was  they.  And 
in  less  than  an  hour  they  had  landed.  We  raced 
down  to  meet  them  long  before  they  reached  the 
shore,  delighted  to  find  them  both  alive  and  weE, 
but  eager  to  hear  what  news  they  brought;  and 
wiiat  supplies.  Unfortunately,  there  was  disappoint- 
ment  in  store  to  temper  the  joy  of  our  meeting. 
Miteqfs  first  aamouncement  ran: 

"No  ammunition,  no  tobacco,  no  tea,  coffee,  sugar 
or  flour/  But,"  he  added  with  a  laugh,  "we  are 
thoroiighly  alive  ourselves,  and  it  might  easily  have 
been  otherwise!" 

The  canoe  grounded  on  the  pebbles,  Miteq  sprang 
ashore  and  we  embraced  heartily. 

His  report  may  be  given  in  brief.  On  leaving  King 
William's  Land  at  the  end  of  May,  they  had  found  the 
ice  so  impassable  along  the  shores  of  the  mainland 
that  they  had  crossed  over  to  Land's  Island,  near 
Victoria  Land,  and  thence  to  White  Bear  Point 
(A  the  sotil&em  coast  of  Queen  Maud  Gulf.  On  the 
way  down  to  Melbourne  Island  they  had  twice 
emxfttntered  the  Eatdlinermiut,  who  had  given  them 
a  most  hostile  inception.  Only  the  women  came 
down  to  meet  them,  the  wen  lying  in  ambush  dose 
romi^  ready  to  fell  ttpoa  them  should  occa^on  arise, 


TRULY  THANKFUL  213 

As  a  rule  they  managed  to  get  on  friendly  terms,  but 
in  one  or  two  places,  the  natives  had  been  so  sarfy 
and  their  behavior  so  suspicious  that  they  judged 
it  best  not  to  sleep  among  them.  They  generally 
fastened  the  dogs  in  a  circle  round  their  tent,  so  as 
to  be  sure  of  being  aroused  in  case  of  danger  from  any 
quarter.  Our  collections  had  been  delivered  safe  and 
sound  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  representative 
at  Kent  Peninsula,  but  the  trade  in  fox  skins  there 
had  been  so  exceptionally  heavy  that  season  that  the 
station  had  sold  out  of  everything  by  the  time  they 
arrived.  They  had  just  managed  to  get  enough 
ammunition  to  last  them  OB  their  way  back.  The 
rivers  flowing  out  into  Queen  Maud  Gulf  had  broken 
up  at  the  beginning  of  Jttne,  and  they  had  had  to 
borrow  a  canoe  to  get  through.  All  their  dogs  had 
been  left  with  some  Eskimos  near  EUice  Kivert 
where  they  themselves  had  stayed  a  month  waiting 
for  the  ice  to  dear  sufficiently  f  or  them  to  proceed 
along  the  coast.  As  it  was,  they  had  only  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  managed  to  inafce  tibeir  way  down 
in  the  frail  canoe. 

Despite  the  bad  news,  we  were  of  course  only  too 
glad  to  have  them  both  back  safe  and  sound*  And  I 
was  greatly  relieved  to  find  that  I  should  not  be  all 
alone  among  strangers  without  ammunition,  for  tbere 
would  be  a  hard  struggle  now  to  keep  our  dogs.  If 
we  lost  them,  the  sledge  trip  to  Nome  would  be  otife 
of  the  qtiestion. 


By  this  time  the  laatiws  were  begmniog  fe» 
their  way  back  to  Malerualik  aad  we  bad  soon  croer 


214  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

a  hundred  souls  in  camp.  The  caribou  hunting  was 
about  to  begin,  and  there  was  great  excitement  as  to 
how  it  would  turn  out. 

On  the  1 5th  of  September,  the  advance  guard  of  the 
caribou  made  their  appearance.  There  was  a  short 
that  echoed  through  the  camp,  and  all  turned  out,  to 
find  the  animals  trotting  down  over  the  hills  to  the 
eastward.  At  a  distance,  it  looked  like  a  great  body 
of  cavalry  on  the  move,  the  herd  advancing  in  line  of 
50  to  100  abreast,  in  steady  formation  down  towajttls 
the  foni  at  Eta.  The  hunters  snatched  up  their 
guns  and  hurried  off,  dropping  down  into  cover 
immediately,  among  the  little  hummocks  on  the  line 
by  which  the  caribou  must  pass.  It  was  the  first 
regular  eaacotmter  of  the  season,  and  the  unsuspecting 
beasts  feept  cm  at  a  steady  trot  towards  the  coast, 
until  a  deafening  volley  brought  them  up  short. 
They  stood  as  if  paralyzed  for  a  moment,  and  they 
gazed  about  helplessly  in  search  of  the  invisible  foe; 
this  gave  the  hunters  a  fresh  chance,  and  shot  after 
shot  rang  out,  the  Animals  dropping  on  every  side, 
and  further  confusing  the  rest,  until  the  entire 
cavalcade  brake  up  into  scattered  groups  that  dashed 
away  headlong  into  the  interior, 

Mteqandlhadt^ennopartmthk  as  we 

h$d  oi%  75  cartridges  between  us,  and  I  had  no  wish 
to  sg&  them  wasted  in  the  reckless  firing  that  oftea 
takes  place  fa  the  excitement  of  dealing  with  a  mass 
of  game  at  cfose  quarters.  As  it  was,  the  total  bag 
amounted  to  some  50  beasts,  which  had,  I  reckoiied, 
cost  from  five  to  sevea  shots  apiece;  a  poor  result  for 
tfee  aqpeodittife,  coinpared  with  what  might  have 


TRULY  THANKFUL  215 

been  obtained  under  the  droHnstanaes,  Hie  Eski- 
mos, however,  accustomed  to  reckon  with  the  slower 
and  scantier  yield  of  bow  and  arrow,  would  reckon 
it  very  satisfactory. 

There  was  not  snow  enough  on  the  ground  to  start 
sledging,  and  on  the  i8th,  early  in  the  morning,  Miteq 
and  I  set  off  up  country  to  go  hunting  on  our  own 
account.  We  came  back  the  same  evening  with 
seven  fine  caribou  —  we  had  deliberately  picked  out 
the  finest  and  fattest  —  a  heavy  load,  but  more  than 
welcome. 

It  was  on  the  2ist  of  September  that  the  Great 
Event  took  place. 

I  was  just  walking  up  towards  the  tent  when  I 
noticed  a  stir  among  the  others  scattered  about, 
Then  suddenly  all  came  pouring  out  from  the  tents, 
men,  women  and  children,  and  a  great  cry  of  wonder 
went  up: 

«O—  oh.  .  .  .  O—  o—  ok  .  .  .  !ff 


then  off  they  went  again,  htmying  d0wn  past  me  in 
great  excitement.  I  thought  at  first  it  most  be  a  Bew 
detachment  of  caribou  in  sight,  and  was  prepared 
to  giveacurtt^usaltoanyooe  wanting  tob 


gun,    Then  oae  of  the  £  oreanost  hailed  me, 
bis  hand  in  t&e  direction  of  tbe  shore: 

"Look,  took  there!tf 

I  turned  and  looked;  and  toM  myself  ft  wasBotfcmig 
of  the  sort;  I  must  be  dreaming*    A  sbij?  under  fefl 


216          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

sail  making  straight  in  towards  us?  Who  ever  heard 
of  such  a  thing?  To  the  young  folk  gathered  round, 
agape  with  wonder,  this  was  the  Great  Event  of  aJl 
their  lives.  A  ship?  They  had  never  seen  a  ship. 
And  see  how  it  floated,  that  great  thing!  And  where 
on  earth  could  they  have  got  all  that  wood?  Here  it 
came,  actually  moving,  swimming  on  the  water  like 
some  great  bird,  yes,  and  with  sails  spreading  out 
above  like  huge  white  wings.  .  .  1 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  wonder  and  excitement,  it 
occurred  to  me  that  there  would  be  ammunition  on 
board  that  ship — whose  it  was,  or  what  its  errand,  I 
did  not  trouble  to  think. 

A  pair  of  ski  lashed  together  served  as  a  flag-staff, 
and  in  a  moment  we  had  hoisted  the  Danish  flag  and 
the  Union  Jack  over  our  dwelling.  An  hour  later  the 
vessel  was  at  anchor  close  inshore,  and  a  motor  boat 
came  sputtering  up  to  the  beach  with  two  white  men 
on  board,  who  introduced  themselves  as  Peter 
Norbeig  of  Hernoesand,  Sweden,  and  Henry  Bjoern 
of  Praestoe,  Denmark. 

After  all,  it  is  a  little  world  1 

They  had  come  up  to  establish  a  station  for  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  in  King  William's  Land. 
The  vessel  was  called  El  Sueno  and  had  originally 
been  a  private  yacht  stationed  at  San  Francisco. 
To  our  unaccustomed  eyes ,  she  seemed  a  very  frigate ; 
though  she  was  but  20  tons.  And  in  this  cockle-shell 
of  a  craft,  without  engines  even,  and  with  a  heavy 
boat  in  tow,  Peter  Norberg  had  forced  a  way  through 
the  most  difficult  part  of  the  old  North-west  Passage, 
namely,  Queen  Maud  Gulf,  a  piece  of  seamanship 


TRULY  THANKFUL  217 

the  extent  of  which  he  himself  was  far  from  realizing. 
They  had  no  charts,  and  no  technical  aids  to  navi- 
gation whatever,  but  as  Peter  Norberg  very  amply 
put  it,  both  came  of  a  seafaring  race,  the  old  viking 
strain  had  been  turned  to  good  account. 

No  fewer  than  forty  vessels  had  taken  part  in  the 
struggle  for  the  North-west  Passage,  Roald  Amund- 
sen, with  his  little  Gjoa  was  the  first  to  win  through; 
and  here  was  Peter  Norberg  coming  in  second  with  a 
bit  of  a  craft  that  could  hardly  be  called  a  vessel 
at  all,  and  had  only  been  built  for  pleasure  cruising 
round  the  Golden  Gate. 

Ten  minutes  later  I  was  on  board,  with  my  teetfa 
deep  in  an  orange.  A  little  later,  I  sat  staring  with 
wide  eyes  at  a  real  cup  of  actual  steaming  coffee. 
There  were  such  things  as  Bread,  and  Cheese,  and 
Butter,  on  the  table,  but  I  did  not  touch  them; 
bring  quite  content  to  sit  puffing  great  clouds  of 
smoke.  And  having  got  used  to  tfaewoodar  of  ail  this 
after  a  while,  it  seemed  quite  natural  to  be  sitting 
on  a  box  containing  5000  cartridges  of  the  precise 
calibre  we  had  been  using;  I  Ksteoed  calmly,  was  in  a 
dream,  to  the  promise  of  unlimited  ammunition.  *  »  . 

Truly,  a  turn  of  events  aH  on  a  sttdden! 

I  gaaed  out  through  the  open  porthole;  the  soow 
was  a  glittering  carpet  of  innumerable  tiny  crystals; 
and  across  it  moved  tlie  caribou  in  their  hundreds, 
trotting  on  all  unaware  towaitts  death  and 
tioa. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY 

OHUT  off  from  the  rest  of  the  world  by  ice  filled 
*-*  seas  and  trackless  wastes  of  vast  extent,  the 
Kttle  hatadful  of  people  who  call  themselves  the  Net- 
sffingmiut  have  been  suffered  to  live  their  own  life, 
such  as  it  is,  up  to  the  present  day  uninfluenced 
by  any  form  of  alien  culture.  Their  own  enttcoer- 
afck>a  of  the  various  tribes  belonging  to  their  people 
is  as  follows: 

The  Arvaigjuaitmut,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
PeBy  Bay,  numbering  32  xneaa  and  22  women;  the 
Netsilingmiut  proper,1  from  Boothia  Isthmus,  39 
men  and  27  women;  the  Kttngmiut,  from  the  banks 
of  Mra-chison  River,  22  men  and  15  women;  the 
Arvertoraiut  from  BeUot  Strait  and  North  Somer- 
set, 10  men  and  8  women,  and  finally,  the  Hivifer- 
mitit  of  Adelaide  Peninsula,  47  men  and  37  womeaa, 
'making  a  total  of  259. 

t  Finom  mid-July  until  December,  these  people  live 
tip  m  the  iaterkr,  occupied  ia  caribou  htmtiog  aad 
;  the  rest  <rf  the  y^r  is  devoted  to  seal 


hunting  on  the  ice.    The  name  Netsffingmmt,  wbidfa 

»la  owafeasfc  to  the  Caa&on  Ss»aos  and  t&e  i^tms  of  tlie  Htafeon 
B^  4Naic^  t^  N«*dliagimat  pi^^ 

evideat  ixem  their  soags  a**c|  tfeek  itam^s.    Among  the  otlier  tribes,  the 
^M 


218 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  219 

means  "Seal  Folk"  hardly  derives  from  any  special 
abundance  of  seal  in  their  district ,  but  is  rather  due  to 
their  having,  after  a  previous  period  inland,  moved 
down  to  the  coast  and  taken  up  hunting  therefin 
contrast  to  the  Caribou  Eskimo.  This  move  would 
appear  to  be  of  comparatively  recent  date. 

Though  few  in  number,  Netsilingmiut  cover  a 
territory  of  considerable  extent,  their  hunting 
grounds  amounting  to  some  125,000  square  kilo- 
metres, which  is  three  times  the  size  of  Denmark,  aikl 
equivalent  to  the  entire  ice-free  portion  of  Greenland. 

1  lived  among  these  people  for  over  six  months, 
and  had  every  opportunity  of  learning  to  koow  tbem 
intimately,  being  forced  myself  to  return  to  alto- 
gether primitive  conditions  and  share  their  lot  in 
every  way;  a  fact  which  was  naturally  conducive 
to  mutual  confidence. 

There  is  hardly  any  country  in  the  world  more 
harsh  and  unfriendly  than  theirs,  or  more  destitute 
of  all  that  is  generally  regarded  as  necessary  to  m»e 
existence.  Winter  begins  in  September  and  lasts  tiB 
the  middle  of  July.  During  the  actual  winter  iBoetfas 
they  have  to  struggle  for  life  against  a  tempera- 
tere  somewhere  between  minus  30°  and  minus  5®0d 
I  visited  them  in  April,  and  marvelled  how  they  could 
beep  tip  their  spirits — find  room,  indeed,  for  fan  and 
merriment — in  their  odd  and  comfortless  dwellings. 
In  May,  the  weather  was  bo*  little  better;  certainly, 
it  was  a  trifle  less  cold,  but  in  return,  the  constant 
blkzards  wrapped  the  whole  poor  eocamfra&eat  erf 
smw  huts  in  a  flurry  of  soow;  and  as  soon  as  ifae  stm 
came  out  for  a  spell,  its  chief  effect  w^s  to  melt  Hie 


220          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

roof  over  their  heads.  But  it  did  not  seem  to  trouble 
them.  And  I  thought  to  myself  that  when  summer 
ea&ie,  it  must  make  amends,  and  give  them  compen- 
sation for  all  they  had  so  bravely  and  patiently 
endured;  surely  they  must  at  some  season  or  other 
absorb  the  warmth  that  even  animals  cannot  do 
without.  The  summer  came,  and  I  visited  them  up 
country  at  their  salmon  fishing,  It  was  not  positively 
cold  now,  but  the  weather  was  by  no  means  pleasant, 
being  dull  and  chilly,  with  a  constant  wind;  the  snow 
had  given  place  to  rain,  and  the  little  tents  made  but  a 
sorry  shelter.  Nevertheless,  the  inmates  were  by  no 
means  depressed;  on  the  contrary,  they  played  games 
most  of  the  day,  going  about  in  their  wretched  rags 
without  a  murmur  at  the  stern  tabu  which  forbade 
them  ercn  to  make  themselves  new  clothes  or  wanner 
sleeping  rugs  until  they  had  shivered  their  way 
tlaroogh  the  first  of  the  snow  right  on  into  November. 

And  these  stepchildren  of  Nature  were  by  no 
means  wretched  in  appearance;  they  were  for  the 
most  part  tall  and  strongly  built;  among  the  men, 
a  height  of  170  cm.  was  by  no  means  uncommon. 
They  were  not  only  cheerful,  but  healthy,  knowing 
nothing  of  any  disease  beyond  the  "colds"  that  come 
as  a  regular  epidemic  in  spring  and  autumn. 

Jt  people  must  naturally  be  viewed  in  the  light 
roundings,  and  from  what  has  already 


bee**  said  as  to  those  of  the  Nets3ingmiut,  It 
hardly  be  surprising  to  find  the  people  themselves  not 
c&dy  hajdy  and  of  great  eodiiEaiice,  but  with  many 
barsiiaiidfodb^^  thestoneage, 

Tine  NetsiHngmiut  are  remarkably  well  aoqtiaiiited 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  221 

with  their  country,  both  as  regards  its  natural 
conditions  and  its  history  from  early  times.  Though 
altogether  unaccustomed  to  the  use  of  pencil  and 
paper  they  were  able  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  to 
draw  outline  maps,  with  a  very  cxmsiderable  amount 
of  detail.  The  actual  distances  might  not  be  quite 
exact,  but  every  lake  and  island,  every  headland  and 
bay  was  noted  so  carefully  that  one  could  easily  find 
one's  way  by  these  maps  in  altogether  new  country. 
Their  own  tradition  holds  that  the 


immigrated  at  some  distant  date  into  the  country 
they  now  occupy,  driving  out  the  original  inhabitants, 
These,  as  in  the  Hudson  Bay  district,  were  called 
Tunit.  It  is  so  long  since  the  Tunit  hunted  seal 
and  whale  in  the  land  of  the  Netsilingmiut  that 
everything  has  changed  since  then.  Land  and  water 
were  different;  in  that  "the  seas  were  deeper**1  so 
that  great  sea  beasts  such  as  the  whale  could  then 
come  in  to  their  shores,  whereas  now  they  are  ooly 
found  right  up  in  Bellot  Strait,  Evidence  of  tteir 
former  presence  in  Ahese  waters  is  seea  in  the  maay 
boties  of  whale  found  among  the  antiesat  ruined  dwell- 
ings. And  in  support  of  the  assertion  as  to  change 
in  the  level  of  the  sea,  old  men  cited  tihe  finding  of  a 
whale  skeleton  far  up  inland  at  Saitoq,  east  of  Shep- 
herd Bay.  Near  the  lake  of  Qomgoq  also,  in  the 
same  locality,  many  skeletons  of  white  whales  have 
been  found,  while  farther  mla&d  again,  sio&r  Lake 
Qissulifc,  there  is  a  mass  of  driftwood,  now  so  rott©d 
by  the  weather  that  it  crttmbfes  at  a  tottch.  But 
the  waters  now  are  so  shallow  thai  m&  em* 

1  This  ^  the  Eskimo  view. 


222  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

ribbon  seal  from  Queen  Matid  Gtdf  pass  in  throogfr 
Simpson  Strait,  and  hunting  of  marine  animals  is 
restricted  to  the  little  common  fjord  seal, 

The  NetaKngmiut  accounts  of  the  Tunit  supple- 
ment those  we  obtained  in  the  Hudson  Bay  district 
about  the  aborigines  there.  And  when,  in  the  course 
of  the  summer,  I  was  able  to  excavate  and  examine 
the  remains  of  twelve  winter  houses  at  Malerualik,  I 
found  that  this  material  also  confirmed  our  theories 
as  to  the  migrations  of  the  Eskimo. 

The  ruined  dwellings  at  Malerualik,  coinpridng 
in  all  65  houses  built  of  stones  and  peat,  are  the  first 
that  have  ever  been  investigated  in  this  area,  and 
therefore  of  the  greatest  importance  as  a  link  between 
otir  finds  in  Hudson  Bay  and  Baffin  Land  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  collections  afterwards  made  in  the 
western  regions  of  Alaska  and  East  Cape. 

Though  the  whales,  as  already  mentioned,  no 
longer  penetrate  into  these  waters,  we  found  a 
considerable  number  of  bones  of  whale  used  for 
building  material  in  the  dwellings  of  these  old  houses, 
and  a  great  majority  of  the  implements  found  were 
made  from  the  same  material.  We  obtained  some- 
thing over  200  items  in  this  category,  witnessingtoa 
type  of  Thule  culture  somewhat  more  adapted  to 
caribou  httnting  than  in  other  places  where  excava- 
tions were  made.  These  finds  here  were  also  rather 
more  primitive,  showing  an  earlier  stage  of  develop- 
ment than  the  Naajaa  relies  from  Reptdse  Bay.  It 
is  thus  also  more  nearly  allied  to  the  Alaskan  form  of 
ctdtare  than  the  other  Tfattle  finds, 

Hie  main  bulk  of  the  ruins  lay  distributed  along 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  223 

three  separate  lines,  marking  the  site  of  former 
beaches,  the  highest  being  some  25  metres  above  sea 
level,  at  a  distance  of  some  400  metres  from  the  coast, 
suggesting  that  they  mtist  be  at  least  as  old  as  the 
ruins  at  Naujan. 

As  has  already  been  indicated,  there  is  no  super- 
abundance of  food  in  these  regions.  There  are,  of 
course,  times  when  more  game  is  kilted  than  can  be 
eaten  at  once,  especially  during  the  great  caribou 
hunting  season,  in  autumn,  or  when  the  salmon 
fishing  in  summer  is  particularly  good.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  we  have  to  reckon  with  periods  in  winter 
when  weeks  may  pass  without  any  possibility  of  pro- 
curing food;  it  is  therefore  absolutely  essential  to 
have  a  store  in  reserve.  Life  is  thus  an  almost 
tminterrupted  struggle  for  bare  existence,  and  periods 
of  dearth  and  actual  starvation  are  not  infrequent, 
Three  years  before  sry  visit,  eighteen  peopk  died  of 
starvation  at  Simpson  Strait.  Hie  year  before, 
seven  died  of  hunger  north  of  Cape  Britannia. 
Twenty-five  is  not  a  great  number  periiaps,  but 
out  of  a  total  of  239  it  makes  a  temble  percentage 
for  death  by  starvation  alone.  And  yet  this  may 
happen  any  winter,  when  there  are  no  caribou  to  be 
had.  It  is  haidly  surprising  then  to  find  canni- 
balism by  no  means  tmccramon.  In  citing  a  typical 
instance  hare,  as  showing  the  merciless  nature 
of  the  struggle  I or  existence,  I  give  both  facts  and 
comment  in  the  wends  of  my  informant,  wbkfa 
express,  I  think,  the  typical  native  point  erf  view. 
The  speaker  is  erne  SaJEoik,  a  good  banter  and  a 
respected  aogakoq. 


224          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

14  Many  peopk  have  eaten  human  flesh.  But 
never  from  aay  desire  for  it,  only  to  save  their  lives, 
and  that  after  so  much  suffering  that  in  many  cases 
they  were  not  fully  sensible  of  what  they  did . 

"You  knew  Tuneqf  Itqilikfs  brother.  You  have 
met  him,  and  his  present  wife,  you  have  lived  with 
them  and  you  know  him  to  be  a  cheery  soul,  a  man 
who  loves  to  laugh,  and  one  who  is  always  kind  to  his 
wife.  Well,  now,  one  winter  many  years  ago  the 
the  hunting  failed.  And  some  starved  to  death  and 
others  died  of  cold,  and  the  living  lived  on  the  dead. 
And  all  at  once  Tuneq  went  out  of  his  mind.  He  saM 
the  spirits  had  told  him  to  eat  hiswife.  Hebeganby 
cutting  bits  fatsoi  her  clothing  and  eating  them,  then 
more  bits,  till  be  had  bared  her  body  in  several  places. 
Then  suddenly  he  stabbed  her  to  death  with  his  knife 
and  ate  of  her  as  he  needed  and  lived.  But  he  placed 
the  bones  in  their  order  as  it  is  required  to  be  done 
when  anyone  dies.  .  <,  . 

"But  we  who  have  endured  such  things  ourselves, 
we  do  not  judge  others  who  have  acted  in  this  way 
though  we  may  find  it  haixl,  when  fed  and  content 
ourselves,  to  understand  how  they  could  do  such 
things.  But  tibea  again,  how  can  one  who  is  in  good 
health  and  well  fed,  expect  to  understand  the  mad- 
ness of  starvation?  We  only  know  that  every  one 

the  same  desire  to  live/* 
temfefe  uacertaiBty  of  life  in  these  regkaas 
accounts  to  seme  extent  for  the  prevalence  of  more 
or  less  superstitious  rites  and  the  >ttse  of  amulets. 
The  l$&b$mg&®&  hold  tfoe  same  views  on  the 
subject  of  aaemiiets  as  the  IgdluliBgmiut,  but  ttsa 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  225 

them  wholesale.  One  little  lad  of  seven  years  old 
went  about  with  no  fewer  than  eighty  sewn  tip  in 
various  parts  of  his  clothing,  which  sadly  hampered 
him  in  his  play. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  evidence  of  the  stern 
conditions  tinder  which  these  people  live  is  afforded 
by  their  strictly  economical  attitude  towards  the 
business  of  childbirth.  Girl  children  are  invariably 
killed  at  birth  -unless  previously  promised  in  marriage 
and  ihus  provided  for  already.  And  this  is  no* 
fjxjm'lack  of  feeling,  nor  from  any  lack  o£  appre- 
ciation of  Woman's  part  in  life,  which  is  recognized 
as  indispensable;  it  is  due  solely  to  a  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  no  breadwinner  can  hope  to  provide 
for  a  family  numbering  much  beyond  the  necessary 
minimum.  A  girl  is  merely  an  unproductive  con- 
stuner  in  the  family  up  to  the  time  when  she  is  able 
to  make  herself  useful;  and  as  soon  as  she  arrives 
at  that  stage,  she  is  given  in  marriage,  and  her 
utility  falls  to  the  share  of  another  h0u#eiH>kL 

Every  tnan  knows  that  he  can  only  reefccm  c&  a 
few  years  of  active  life  as  a  htintear,  tmless  lie  skmld 
happen  to  be  endowed  with  a  sttsdier  constitutkHi 
even  than  his  fellows.  After  a  while  he  finds  himself 
unable  to  compete.  If  he  have  SOTS,  these  will  as  a 
rale  be  able  to  help  him  when  his  own  strength  begins 
to  fail;  and  it  is  thus  an  advantage  to  have  as  many 
som  as  possible,  stavtag  off  the  evil  boor  when 
one  literafly  feels  tlie  noose  at>out  oae's  neck.  Fcr 
It  is  a.  general  custom  tfeat  old  f €&  do  te®g@r  sfcfe 
to  provide  £ or  t&smsetros  <xsimiiit  siitc^^^ 
Life  is  short,  a***3  we  must  make  the  jBidsl  cf  ifr** 4ft$& 


226          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

is  the  crude  moral  of  it  all  Moreover,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  it  takes  three  years  at  least  before  a 
child  is  weaned,  during  which  period  the  mother  does 
not  as  a  rule  give  birth  to  others;  parents  can  there- 
fore ill  afford  to  spend  three  years  on  a  girl  when  they 
might  hope  to  have  a  boy. 

It  has  been  generally  believed  that  the  Eskimos 
were  a  people  with  low  birth  rate  as  a  whole.  This 
is  only  true  to  a  certain  extent;  the  long  period  of 
nursing  accounts  to  a  great  extent  for  the  length  of 
time  between  births. 

At  Makrualik,  in  Kmg  William's  Land,  I  weat 
through  the  whok  settlement,  enquiring  of  the 
women  individtsafiy  how  many  children  they  had 
borne,  and  bow  many  giris  had  been  killed,  noting 
carefully  the  names  and  numbers  in  each  case. 
The  result,  from  the  list  before  me  as  I  write, 
gives,  for  eighteen  marriages,  a  total  of  ninety-six 
children  of  which  38  were  killed  at  once  as  girls 
not  previously  provided  for.  It  is  significant  how- 
ever, that  of  the  259  sotds  which  make  up  the  popu- 
lation  of  the  Netsilingmint,  109  are  women  as  against 
150  men.  Despite  considerable  fertility  therefore, 
ft  is  evident  tliat  the  race  is  on  the  way  to  extermin- 
ation if  the  giife  oontlntie  to  be  thus  summarily  JdBed 
off  at  birth* 

As  an  instance  of  their  fertility  I  may  quote  a  case 
wfcicfc  came  to  my  knowledge.  Imingarsuk,  aged 
about  60,  whom  I  met  at  Committee  Bay,  had  had 
20  children;  of  these,  to  were  girls  Hlkd  in  infancy, 
4  died  of  disease,  €iies^ 
and  oae  datigjiter,  whom  I  afterwards  mefc,  all  fine 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  227 

healthy  specimens  of  the  race-  I  asked  the  mothear 
if  she  did  act  regret  the  killing  of  the  girls,  but 
she  answered,  no,  for  if  she  had  had  to  nurse  all  those 
girls,  who  were  born  before  the  boys,  she  would  have 
had  BD  sons  at  all.  As  it  was,  she  loved  her  sons, 
who  had  secured  relative  comfort  for  herself  and  her 
husband  in  their  old  age,  but  had  no  sort  of  feeling 
for  the  infants  killed,  whom  indeed  she  had  barely 
seen.  My  list  above  quoted  includes  also  two  won*en 
with  ten,  two  with  eleven,  and  one  with  twelve  births 
to  their  credit. 

In  the  face  of  these  hard  comKtioos,  the  Netsiling- 
miut  have  developed  a  wonderful  degree  of  ingenuity 
and  endttranoe  in  the  pursuit  of  that  game  on  which 
their  lives  depend.  Highest  in  this  respect  is  their 
method  of  harpooning  seal  at  the  breathing  holes. 
They  rank  first  among  all  the  tribes  in  this  form  of 
hunting,  and  their  methods  and  apparatus  are  worth 
a  brief  description. 

When  the  ice  first  forms,  the  seal  nosed  and  scrapes 
a  small  hole  through  which  to  breathe;  tie  site  is 
indicated  by  a  slight  rise,  or  bell-shaped  pix>tuberan€e 
of  the  ice  above  the  rest.  It  is  a  comparatively  easy 
thing  to  harpoon  a  seal  at  this  stage,  but  the  matter 
becomes  vastly  more  difficult  when  the  ice  has  thick- 
ened to  some  two  or  three  metres,  with  a  farther 
layer  of  snow  abwe.  What  exactly  tafces  place 
may  be  seen  from  an  account  of  a  day's  hunting. 

Vary  esdy,  before  it  is  quite  light,  Imigfctik  and  I 
are  roused  from  steep,  and  a  jug  of  boiEng  seal's  blood 
is  brought  us.  Still  barely  awake,  we  swaQow  the 
hot,  thick  soap  with  its  abundance  of  bitibber, 


228          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

knowing  that  we  cannot  expect  to  get  another  meal 
for  the  next  ten  or  twelve  hours.  Then  hurrymg 
into  our  outdoor  clothes,  we  join  our  companion 
and  the  party,  fifteen  strong,  sets  out  across  the  ice 
at  a  smart  pace*  It  is  bitterly  cold,  with  a  biting 
wind. 

Each  of  us  carries  a  bag  slung  from  his  shoulders, 
<xrataining  various  minor  requisites;  the  harpoon  is 
carried  in  the  hand.  Dogs  are  used  to  pick  up  the 
blow  holes  by  scent. 

It  took  us  three  hours  to  find  the  first,  which  fell 
to  the  lot  of  Inugtuk.  I  remain  with  him,  while  the 
rest  of  the  party  scatter  in  various  directions.  Inttg- 
tuk  mm  sets  about  his  first  preparations,  First  of 
all  he  cuts  away  the  upper  layer  of  snow,  leaviog 
the  dome  of  ice  exposed.  Then,  with  an  ice-pick  at 
the  butt  end  of  his  harpoon,  he  chips  away  at  the 
fresh  ice  which  has  formed  since  the  seal's  last  visit, 
scooping  out  the  fragments  with  a  spoon  of  musk 
ox  horn.  He  then  takes  a  "feeler/'  a  long  curved 
implement  made  of  horn,  and  thrusts  it  down  into 
the  hole  to  ascertain  the  exact  position  of  the  bore,  or 
vertical  tunnel  relative  to  the  opening  itself .  This 
is  a  most  important  point,  as  the  position  of  the  seal 
when  it  comes  up  to  breathe  depends  on  this,  and  the 
direction  of  the  harpoon  thrust  has  to  be  determined 
acxsordisgly.  With  the  aperture  immediately  aJbove 
the  oeaitre  of  the  vertical  shaft,  a  straight  downward 
thrust  will  generally  strike  the  animal,  btrt  where  the 
aperture  is  a  fittle  to  one  side,  there  will  be  room  for 
ifae  bafpoon  to  pass  without  touching-  As  soo®  ag 
tibfe  feas  been  ascertained,  the  s&ow  is  packed  down 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  229 

again  over  the  ice,  and  a  hole  pierced  straight  through 
it  with  the  harpoon  so  as  to  give  a  dear  thrust  when 
the  moment  arrives. 

The  next  implement  called  into  requisition  is  the 
"feather/*  This  consists  of  a  stiff  sinew  from  the 
foot  of  a  caribou,  into  which  is  fixed  a  piece  of  swans- 
down  at  one  end,  the  other  being  forked,  so  that  the 
forks  catch  on  either  side  of  the  opening,  leaving  the 
swansdown  indicator  just  far  enough  down  the  shaft 
to  be  still  visible  from  above.  As  soon  as  the  seal 
comes  up  and  begins  to  breathe,  the  "feather" 
begins  to  quiverf  and  the  hunter  strikes. 

Hie  harpoon  itself  consists  of  a  shaft  with  a  loose 
head,  a  line  being  attached  to  the  latter,  so  that  on 
striking,  the  head  becomes  fixed  in  the  body  of  the 
seal,  and  at  the  same  time  comes  away  from  the  shaft, 
when  the  animal  is  held  on  the  line  just  as  a  fish  on 
the  hook.  It  is  then  drawn  ttp  to  the  hole  again  and 
killed. 

As  soon  as  all  was  in  i&adtuoessv  Inugtuk  spread  out 
his  bag  on  the  snow  io  front  of  the  hole  and  stood  on 
it.  This  partly  to  prevent  the  snow  fooaaa  creaking 
underfoot,  and  partly  as  a  protection  from  the  cold. 
And  there  he  stood,  like  a  statue  harpoon  at  the 
ready,  and  eyes  fixed  on  the  swaosdown  just  visible 
below.  Hour  after  hour  passed,  and  I  began  to 
realize  what  an  nncaeose  amount  of  patience  and 
endurance  are  required  for  this  form  of  hunting  with 
the  tfaernK*oeter  at  minus  5O°€X  Pour  hours  of  it 
seemed  to  me  ail  eternity  ^ 
stood  COT  twelve  hot^ 
back  food  for  ibe  hungry  oiiesatliPi^e* 


230          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

We  had  just  decided  to  give  it  up  when  we  saw 
that  one  of  the  others  a  little  way  off  had  got  a  seal. 
As  soon  as  he  had  hauled  it  up,  we  hurried  over  to 
httrt  to  take  part  in  the  "hunter's  meal"  a  regular 
procedure  almost  in  the  nature  of  a  sacrament.  All 
kneel  down,  the  successful  hunter  on  the  right,  the 
others  on  the  left  of  the  seal.  A  small  hole  is  cut 
in  the  carcase  large  enough  to  extract  the  liver  and  a 
portion  of  blubber,  the  opening  being  then  carefully 
pinned  "up  to  avoid  loss  pf  blood.  The  liver  and 
blubber  are  then  cut  up  into  dice  and  eaten  kneeling. 
For  myself,  I  always  felt  there  was 


touching  and  solemn  about  this  ceremonial  eating 
o£  the  first  meat  on  which  men's  lives  depend. 

Our  total  bag  that  day  was  one  seal,  and  fifteen 
men  were  out  for  eleven  hours  to  get  it.  But  my 
comrades  were  only  too  thankful  that  they  had  any- 
thing to  bring  home  at  all,  which  is  certainly  not 
always  the  case.  On  the  other  hand,  one  may 
get  three  or  four  in  a  single  day.  But  seal  generally 
are  scarce  here.  I  reckoned  out  that  the  average 
haul  per  man  would  be  about  10  to  15  seal  from 
January  to  June.  At  a  village  with  10  families 
numbering  37  souls  in  all,  the  winter  catch  amounted 
to  only  about  1  50  seal,  AskilMbtmterin  Greenland 
would  liave  been  able  to  get  about  200  in  the  same 
time,  which  shows  the  enormous  difference  in  the 
general  options  of  life. 

The  mind  of  the  NetsiHk  Eskimo  is  like  the  surface 
oiene  of  these  lakes  with  which  Ms  country  abounds: 
ms&y  roused,  but  soon  cahn  again.  But  coolness  is 
as  a  virtae,  and  whatever  misf  ortune 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  231 

occur,  a  man  is  rarely  heard  to  complain.  The  fact  is 
noted,  and  regarded  as  inevitable:  so  it  is,  and  it 
could  not  have  been  otherwise.  So  that  the  visitor 
dwelling  among  them  for  a  while  finds  them  living 
to  aH  appearance  in  careless  content, 

Man  and  wife  are  comrades.  The  woman  may 
have  been  purchased  for  a  sledge,  or  a  kayak;  perhaps 
for  a  bit  of  iron  and  a  few  rusty  nails;  but  she  is  by 
no  means  regarded  as  a  chattel  without  feelings, 
Theoretically,  the  husband  has  the  right  to  deal  with 
her  as  he  pleases;  her  very  life  is  in  his  hands,  but  in 
point  of  fact  she  is  not  ill-treated  in  the  slightest 
degree.  She  has  her  own  position  ia  the  home,  which 
is  marked  not  merely  by  freedom  and  liveliness  of 
manner,  bat  also  by  some  authority,  especially 
among  the  older  wwnen. 

Children  are  regarded  with  a  touching  devotion, 
and  in  times  of  dearth,  the  parents  regard  it  as  a 
matter  of  course  that  the  fittle  ones  must  first  be  fad, 
even  though  there  be  i*ot  enough  lor  alL  Children 
adopted  into  a  family — bought  for  some  trifle  as  a 
speculation — receive  the  same  treatment  in  ewrp 
way;  the  "orphan"  type,  the  wnetefeed,  neglected, 
hatf -starred  father-aiid-moiherless  chiH  so  common 
in  Greenland,  is  here  entirely  unknown. 

There  is  a  regular  division  of  labor:  it  is  the  man's 
business  to  procure  foody  while  his  wife  attends  to  all 
the  work  of  the  botise.  Hat  work,  moreover,  is 
highly  esteemed,  and  a  good  oeedlewiCHaan  is  greatly 
respected  by  bar  feflows.  She  boJds  property  m  tor 
own  right;  articles  socb  as  lamps  mA  coofeg  $»$*% 
sewing  requis^  and  other  hoosekold  goods  mate 


232  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

up  her  marriage  portion,  and  she  retains  them  when 
the  marriage  is  dissolved.  Divorce  is  common 
where  there  are  no  children,  and  a  woman  may  be 
married  seven  or  eight  times  before  she  settles  down 
for  good.  Children  are  regarded  by  the  parents  as  a 
great  blessing,  and  serve  to  knit  the  two  more  closely 
together, 

Polygamy  exists,  but  is  not  common,  owing  to  the 
scarcity  of  women.  Where  a  man  has  more  than  one 
wife,  it  is  always  a  sign  of  distinction  and  unusual 
skill  in  hunting.  Jealousy  is  not  unknown,  but 
wives  in  one  household  generally  get  on  amicably 
together.  Polyandry  also  occurs;  a  woman  may  not 
infrequently  have  two  husbands.  A  man,  of  course, 
is  helpless  if  he  has  no  one  to  make  his  clothes,  and 
two  friends  will  occasionally  "go  shares"  in  a  wife. 
Stteh  arrangements  do  not,  however,  turn  out  well  as  a 
rule,  among  young  people  at  any  rate,  and  not 
infrequently  end  with  the  killing  of  one  of  the  men. 
A  woman  cannot  on  her  own  account  invite  a  man 
friend  to  share  her  husband's  rights  in  her;  this  is  the 
husband's  privilege  alone. 

"Changing  wives"  for  a  short  time  is  of  common 
occurrence.  The  man's  position  is  altogether  one  of 
considerable  freedom,  and  it  is  regarded  as  perfectly 
natoral  that  he  should  have  intercourse  with  other 
women  as  oftesi  as  any  opportunity  occurs,  Go&- 
seqtijeatiy,  a  woman  left  alone  while  her  husband  is 
out  hunting  is  exposed  to  some  risk  from  the  advance 
of  other  men;  should  she  giire  way  to  any  such, 
?i*e  will  as  a  rule  be  punished  by  her  husband 
Q&  occasion,  however,  it  is  the  co-respondent  who  is 


I 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  233 

called  to  account,  the  matter  being  settled  by  a  bcmt 
at  fisticuffs.  All  the  men  are  practised  boxers. 

The  freedom  thus  claimed  by  the  man  in  the 
marital  relation  is  by  no  meads  extended  to  the 
woman,  who  in  this  inspect  is  considered  her  hus- 
band's property.  Changing  wives  is  effected  without 
the  least  regard  to  the  feelings  of  the  isspective 
wives,  who  are  not  consulted  in  the  matter  at  all. 
Even  where  a  woman  definitely  wishes  to  remain 
"faithful"  to  her  own  spouse,  her  constancy  would 
not  only  be  unappreciated,  but  would  be  regarded  as 
disobedience,  and  punishable  as  sttefa.  It  is  indeed 
regarded  as  a  sin:  "the  spirits  do  not  like  it." 

Natural  desire  and  economical  necessity,  combined 
with  the  fact  that  there  are  not  enough  women  to  go 
itmnd,  give  rise  inevitably  to  keen  competition  arnong 
the  men,  as  well  as  to  quarrels,  not  infrequently  with 
a  fatal  termination. 

In  earlier  times,  there  was  also  oontintial  war  with 
other  tribes,  and  there  are  many  stories  of  kaffifig 
arid  even  massacre.  Since  the  coming  of  the  white 
men  to  the  Hudson  Bay  district,  there  had  bam 
peace  with  the  tribes  to  the  eastward,  but  relations 
witib  those  o&  the  west,  especially  in  Victoria  Land, 
were  still  somewhat  strained,  And  to  this  day  it  is 
ajstomary  for  sledge  parties  approaching  a  village 
to  halt  sane  distance  off  and  send  forward  a  woman 
as  a  herald  of  peace.  During  my  stay  among  the 
Ilivilermitit  I  happe&ed  to  bear  ooe  at  the  naims 
there  giving  an  account  of  an  eiKsottater  will*  Hie 
Kitdtmermmt  whicb  was  the  more  vsloaWe  as 
the  man  was  not  s|jeakl»g  to  me  at  afl,  but  addressing 


234          A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

himself  to  his  own  companions.  The  speaker  was  oae 
Nakasuk,  from  Adelaide  Peninsula,  and  his  account 
was  as  follows: 

"Many  came  out  towards  me.  But  without 
showing  sign  of  fear  I  drove  straight  in  among  than 
and  said: 

"  Well,  it  is  only  me;  and  I  am  nobody  much.  If 
those  here  wish  to  kill  me,  it  may  be  done  without 
much  risk,  for  there  is  none  who  would  care  to  take 
vengeance."' 

"This  was  received  with  laughter,  and  one  of  the 
strangers  stepped  forward  to  my  sledge  and  said- 

"'Are you  afraid?'" 

"laaswered:  'I  am  past  the  age  when  one  is  afraid 
of  others.  I  have  come  alone  into  the  midst  of  your 
camp,  as  you  see;  if  I  had  been  a  coward,  I  should 
certainly  have  stayed  at  home. ' " 

"These  words  were  greeted  with  much  approval, 
and  an  old  white-haired  man  gave  me  their  welcome. 
He  said: 

"'You  area  manf  and  you  speak  with  the  words  of  a 
man.  You  may  stay  among  us  without  fear.  No 
erne  will  harm  you.'  " 

The  said  Nakasuk,  it  should  be  noted  was  a  maa 
of  middle  age,  with  two  wives  and  several  sons,  aad 
a  maa  of  no  little  importance  among  his  own  people; 
actually,  then,  neither  so  old  as  to  count  Kfe  worth- 
less hiinself ,  nor  so  insignificant  that  none  would 
care  to  avenge  his  death.  But  the  little  dialogue  is 
eloquent  of  tjie  general  f eding  between  one  tribe 
and  another;  it  does  act  do  to  regard  strangers  as 
frfesads. 


FROM  STARVATION  TO  SAVAGERY  235 

I  had,  indeed,  later  cm,  abundant  evidence  that 
caution  in  such  respects  was  needed.  At  a  Httk 
settlement  called  Kunajuk,  on  the  EHice  River,  I 
questioned  each  of  the  men  as  to  whether  they  had 
taken  part  in  or  been  subject  to  acts  of  violence. 
The  results  are  set  out  as  follows:  and  it  should  be 
noted  that  in  nearly  every  case  the  victims  were 
of  the  same  tribe;  the  motive  was  invariably  some 
quarrel  about  a  woman. 

Angulalik  had  taken  part  in  a  murderous  affray 
but  had  not  himself  killed  any  one. 

Uakuaq  had  killed  Kutdlaq  in  revenge  for  the 
latter's  killing  of  Qaltsaq. 

Angnernaq  had  two  wives.  One  had  been  stolen 
away  from  him,  but  he  had  not  yet  taken  vengeance. 

Portoq  had  carried  off  the  wife  of  a  man  who  had 
not  yet  taken  vengeance. 

Kivggaluk  had  lost  his  father  and  brcft^sir—ba^h 
murdered. 

Ingoreq  hadattempted  to  mtiMe^ 

Erf  ana  had  killed  Kununassoaq,  and  taken  part  in 
the  killing  of  Kutdlaq. 

Kingmerut  had  killed  Maggararaq  at*3  had  also 
taken  part  in  a  murderous  attack  upon  another  man. 

Erqulik  stated  that  two  attempts  had  been  made  to 
carry  off  his  wife,  both  without  success. 

Pangnaq,  a  boy  of  twelve,  had  shot  his  father  for 
31-treating  his  mother. 

Maneraitsiaq  had  shot  a  man,  in  a  dtiel  (with  bow 
aod  arrow)  but  had  not  killed  him. 

Tumaujoq  had  killed  Ailaaatek  in  revenge  lor  £be 
mwder  of  Mahik. 


236  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

One  may  often  hear  people  who  know  nothing  of 
the  life  of  " savage"  tribes  suggest  that  these  should 
be  left  to  live  in  their  own  way  and  not  have  civili- 
zation forced  upon  them.  My  own  experiences  in 
these  particular  regions  have  convinced  me  that  the 
white  man,  though  bringing  certain  perils  in  his 
train  does  nevertheless  introduce  a  gentler  code,  and 
in  many  ways  lightens  the  struggle  for  existence. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  must  not  judge  these 
children  of  nature  too  harshly.  They  are,  in  fact, 
still  in  but  an  early  stage  of  evolution  as  human 
beiaogs.  And  we  should  bear  in  mind  that  life  in 
these  inhospitable  regions,  exposed  to  the  crudest 
conditions  and  ever  on  the  verge  of  extermination  is 
not  condiacive  to  excessive  gentleness. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

BELATED  HONORS 

D  Y  the  end  of  September  we  were  ready  to  start 
*-*  sledging  again.  A  week  sufficed  to  procure  the 
caribou  meat  needed  for  our  stay  and  for  the  jcmraey . 
We  had  built  two  light  sledges  of  the  Greenland  type, 
with  iron  runners,  for  this  autumn  work,  as  the  long 
Hudson  Bay  sledges  with  peat-and-ice  shoeing  would 
be  useless  on  the  soppy  new  ice  of  the  autumn,  when 
there  is  no  snow.  The  work  was  soon  done,  and  we 
were  now  only  waiting  for  the  ice  to  come.  We  were, 
to  tell  the  truth,  impatient  to  make  a  start  on  this 
new  stage  of  our  journey,  winch  should,  in  tifoe 
course  of  the  spring,  carry  us  into  civilized  regions 
onoe  more.  Meantime,  we  occupied  oorsdtaes  with. 
short  excursions  in  the  neighborhood,  I  bad  by 
this  time  completed  my  work  as  far  as  the  fofldore 
department  was  concerned,  and  WES  able  now  to  turn 
my  attention  to  a  project  I  had  long  had  in  mbad^ 
and  which,  I  am  happy  to  say,  proved  successful, 
It  was,  as  many  of  my  readers  are  doubtless  aware, 
in  the  region  of  King  WHBam*  s  Land  that  osie  o€  tiba 
greatest  tragedies  in  the  whole  history  of  Arctic 
exploration  took  place.  In  the  year  I&f5,  Jofaa 
Franklin  sailed  from  England  witfe  two  fioe 
the  Erebus  and  ti*e  Terror,  with  caiews 
129  officers  and  meii.  Tb§  obgbefc  *rf  the  e 


238          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

was  to  find  and  traverse  the  North-west  Passage, 
the  great  sea-route  then  supposed  to  connect  the 
Atlantic  with  the  Pacific.  But  instead  of  an  open 
channel,  they  found  only  straits  and  sounds  blocked 
with  heavy  ice.  After  one  winter  spent  under 
these  conditions,  the  ship  was  beset,  and  had  to  be 
abandoned;  and  an  attempt  to  find  a  way  back  to 
civilization  via  the  Great  Fish  River  resulted  in  the 
death,  after  terrible  sufferings,  of  all  those  who  had 
not  previously  perished  of  disease.  Numerous  relief 
and  search  expeditions  were  sent  out ,  but  it  was  maisy 
yeais  before  definite  information  was  obtained, 
through  the  NetsOingmiut  themselves,  as  to  the  fate 
of  the  tmf  ortunate  explorers. 

I  have  already  mentioned  meeting,  while  at  PeSy 
Bay,  a  native  named  Iggiararsuk,  whose  parents 
had  come  in  contact  with  members  of  the  Franklin 
Expedition.  And  now,  here  at  Malerualik  again* 
I  found  that  several  of  the  older  men  were  able  to 
communicate  interesting  details  as  to  what  had  takeai 
place  on  that  occasion.  I  made  careful  notes  of  all 
they  had  to  say;  the  account  given  below  is  in  the 
words  of  Qaqortingneq  himself.  One  feature  com- 
mem  to  all  the  accounts,  which  struck  me  as 
at  the  time,  was  the  comparative  indifference 
nasrafa&s  to  the  tragic  element  in  the  story;  the 
point  tfaat  seemed  to  interest  them  most  was  the 
ignorance  that  prevailed  in  those  days  among  their 
own  people  as  to  white  men  generally,  and  tfagfe 
goods  and  gear  in  particular  as  viewed  in  the  Bgbf 
d  tibe  narrators'  oro  superior  knowledge.  This  wi$t 
drawn  upon  to  the  utmost  as  a  source  of  comic  relief 


BELATED  HONORS  239 

I  have  here  omitted  the  numerous  Eskimo  names, 
for  the  sake  of  brevity:  Qaqortingneq  always  insisted 
on  giving  the  names  of  all  concerned,  as  evidence 
that  his  story  was  to  be  relied  on. 
Qaqortingneq's  account,  then,  is  as  follows: 

"Two  brothers  were  out  hunting  seal  to  the  north- 
west of  Qeqertaq  (King  William's  Land).  It  was  in 
the  spring,  at  the  time  when  the  saow  melts  about 
the  breathing  holes  of  the  seal  They  caught  sight 
of  something  far  out  on  the  ice;  a  great  blade  mass  of 
something,  that  could  not  be  aay  animal  they  knew. 
They  studied  it  and  made  out  at  last  that  it 
was  a  great  ship.  Running  home  at  once,  they  told 
their  fellows,  and  on  the  following  day  all  went  out  to 
see.  They  saw  no  men  about  the  ship;  it  was 
deserted;  and  they  therefore  decided  to  take  horn  it 
all  they  could  find  for  themselves*  But  none  of  them 
had  ever  before  met  with  white  laea,  and  they  had 
no  knowledge  as  to  the  use  erf  afl  the  tlm^gstikey  found. 

'Due  man,  seeing  a  boat  that  bung  out  aver  the 
side  of  the  ship,  cried;  'Here  is  a  fine  big  trottgh 
that  wilt  <fo  for  meat!  I  wifl  have  this!'  He  had 
never  seen  a  boat  before,  and  did  not  know  what  it 
was.  And  he  cut  the  ropes  that  held  it  up,  and  the 
boat  crashed  down  endways  on  to  the  ice  and  was 
si&asbed* 


away  t&e  barrels  ami  tised  the  metal  for 
So  ignorant  *OT&  they  i^k^  in 


of  gttus  and  bekwagmg  to  guits,  that  OG  fiadffi^ 


240          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

percussion  caps,  such  as  were  used  in  those  days,  they 
took  them  for  tiny  thimbles,  and  really  believed 
that  there  were  dwarfs  among  the  white  folk,  little 
people  who  could  use  percussion  caps  for  thimbles, 

"At  first  they  were  afraid  to  go  down  into  the  lower 
part  of  the  ship,  but  after  a  while  they  grew  bolder, 
and  ventured  also  into  the  houses  underneath.  Here 
they  found  many  dead  men,  lying  in  the  sleeping 
places  there;  all  dead.  And  at  last  they  went  down 
also  into  a  great  dark  space  in  the  middle  of  the  ship. 
It  was  quite  dark  down  there  and  they  could  not  see. 
But  they  soon  found  tools  and  set  to  work  and  cut  a 
window  in  the  side.  But  here  those  foolish  ones, 
Imowing  nothing  of  the  white  men's  things,  cut  a  hok 
in  the  side  of  the  ship  below  the  water  line ,  so  that  the 
water  came  pouring  in,  and  the  ship  sank.  It  sank 
to  the  bottom  with  all  the  costly  things;  nearly  all 
that  they  had  found  was  lost  again  at  once, 

"But  in  the  same  year,  later  on  in  the  spring,  three 
men  were  on  their  way  from  Qeqertaq  to  the  south- 
ward, going  to  hunt  caribou  calves.  And  they  found 
a  boat  with  the  dead  bodies  of  six  men*  There  were 
knives  and  guns  in  the  boat,  and  much  food  also,  so 
the  men  must  have  died  of  disease. 

**Tbere  are  many  places  in  our  country  here  where 
foc&ies  of  tibese  white  men  may  still  be  found.  I 
myself  have  been  to  Qavdlunaxsiorfik  [a  spit  of  land 
c&  Adelaide  PfeEriasula,  nearly  opposite  the  site  where 
AmtHKbea  wintered];  we  tised  to  go  there  to  dig  for 
lead  and  bits  of  iron,  And  then  there  is  Kanger- 
arfigdfek,  quite  do®e  here,  a  little  way  along  the^ooast 
to  the  west. 


BELATED  HONORS  241 

"And  that  is  all  I  know  about  your  white  men 
who  once  came  to  our  land,  aiid  perished;  whom  our 
fathers  met  but  could  not  help  to  live." 

One  day  just  before  the  ice  had  formed,  I  sailed  up 
with  Peter  Nortetg  and  Qaqortingneq  to  Qavdktaar~ 
siorfik,  on  the  east  coast  of  Adelaide  Peninsula,  AIM! 
here,  exactly  in  the  spot  indicated  by  the  Eskimos,  we 
found  a  number  of  human  boaes, 


the  last  mortal  remains  of  Franklin's  men*  Some 
scraps  of  dothing  and  footwear  scattered  about  the 
same  spot  showed  that  they  were  those  of  white  m&ou 

We  gathered  the  poor  remains  together  and  built  a 
cairn  above  them,  hoisting  two  flags  at  haif  mast 
above;  their  own  and  ours,  And  without  many 
words  we  paid  the  last  honors  to  the  dead. 

Here  on  this  lonely  spit  of  land,  weary  men  had 
toiled  along  the  last  stage  of  their  mortal  journey. 
Their  trades  are  not  effaced,  as  long  m  others  Irro 
to  follow  and  cany  them  farther;  their  work  lives 
as  long  as  any  region  of  the  globe  remains  for  men 
to  find  and  eooqtter. 

Our  first  encounter  with  a  fellow  htmaan  here  was 
not  exactly  cordial  to  begin  with,  b&t  characteristic 
of  these  people  in  their  normal  relations  with  oilier 
tribes.  I  was  o&fc  reconnoitring,  whea  I  caught  sigbt 
of  a  young  man  fisfamg  for  cod  through  a  bole  in 
the  ice.  The  mooaeiit  be  sighted  me,  lie  snatched 
up  liis  Hue  and  scuttled  off  to  the  shelter  of  a 
foefcf  whea3oe  he  pr€seo%  reappeai^  with  a  fcie  sew 
magazine  rifle  of  the  lastest  model,  evidently  ready 


242  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

to  make  short  work  of  me  at  the  slightest  sign  of 
danger.  It  did  not  take  long,  however,  to  convince 
him  of  my  complete  friendliness  as  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  and  we  were  soon  laughing  heartily  at  the 
misunderstanding.  And  he  took  me  along  to  his 
village  ajid  introduced  me  almost  as  if  we  had  known 
each  other  for  years.  From  the  appearance  of  the 
hut  and  its  furnishings  it  was  plain  that  we  were  not 
far  from  a  trading  station.  Fine  woollen  blankets  of 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  best  were  spread  about 
among  caribou  skins  more  suited  to  the  climate; 
enamelled  ironware  had  taken  the  place  of  the  carved 
and  blubber-polished  vessels  made  from  driftwood; 
there  were  aluminium  cooking  pots  instead  of  the 
heavy  stone  utensils,  and  even  the  soapstone  lamp, 
a  handsome  article  in  itself,  was  here  replaced  by  a 
glittering  tin  contrivance  out  of  a  shop. 

On  the  sleeping  place  sat  a  young  woman  cross- 
legged,  her  magnificent  caribou  furs  partly  cavern! 
and  utterly  effaced  by  a  horrible  print  apron.  Hcsr 
hands  were  covered  with  cheap-jack  rings,  a  cheap 
cigarette  was  held  between  two  fingers,  and  she 
breathed  out  smoke  from  her  nostrils  as  she  leaned 
back  with  the  languid  insolence  of  a  film  star  and 
greeted  us  with  a  careless  "how  do  you  do." 

I  thanked  my  lucky  stars  at  that  moment  that  I 
bad  visited  King  William's  Land  at  least  before  &m 
trading  stations  had  got  hold  of  it;  while  there  was 
still  some  native  life  and  i oBdore  left  to  explore. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

EXUBERANT  POLK 


ON  a  firt**  afternoon  —  it  was  the  I4th  of  NovTember 
—  just  as  the  chffi  autitmn  sun  was  slipping 
below  the  horizon^  I  dnove  into  the  little  trading 
station,  which  is  built  in  a  sheltered  creek  just  at  the 
mouth  of  Arctic  Sound.  And  here  a  pleasant 
reception  awaited  me,  in  that  I  found  two  f  eflow- 
countiymen. 

Hie  station  was  in  charge  erf  Mr.  H.  Clarke,  who 
was,  moreover,  entrusted  with  the  organization  of  all 
the  ftew  stations  east  of  Bafllie  Isiaod-  And  his 
assistant  was  a  Danish  tiappernaHied  Rudoif  Jeosen, 
who  had  been  iroddng  on  his  own  account  for  some 
twenty  years  in  the  region  of  the  Mackenzie  River 
ddta,  and  was  now  engaged  ia  the  C^w^paay^s  servile 
Even  more  pleased  was  I  to  fiod  Leo  Hansea^  the 
filtn  pbotograpber  wbo  had  ocmie  up  to  meet  me 
and  share  our  final  sport  thimigji  the  third  and  last 
winter  of  the  expedition-  I  bad  written  home 
from  R*eptils&  Bay  in  Jaaraaiy,  1923*  aslra«  ray 
Committee  to  send  oat  a  film  photographer,  as  I  feft 
oc«aviaoed  that  motion  pictures  m*dd  be  a  valuable 
addition  to  tie  other  material  we  were  ooOeeting- 
He  had  made  an  advecrfcaroas  jooraey  OQ  his  own 
aoooont,  first  from  Copeaihagjeo  to  New  YoA,  then 


244  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

across  Canada  to  Vancouver;  from  there  on  boaid 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  steamer  Lady  Kinder*-* 
ley  northward  via  Point  Barrow  and  Herschel  Island 
to  the  little  trading  station  at  Tree  River,  in  Coro- 
nation Gulf,  and  thence  finally  to  Kent  Peninsula  by 
the  little  schooner  that  plies,  during  the  brief  arctic 
sraraner,  between  the  small  outlying  stations  towards 
Victoria  Land.  He  had  brought  his  technical  im- 
pedimenta through  without  mishap,  and  was  eager 
to  get  to  work. 

In  any  case,  we  could  not  afford  to  make  any  k»g 
stay  here;  winter  and  darkaess  were  upon  us,  and  we 
could  not  reckon  on  light  enough  for  motion  pictures 
ia  December.  By  the  time  it  was  light  again  ia 
March,  we  should  be  well  out  of  the  North-west 
Passage  country,  among  the  semi-civilized  Eskimos 
of  the  Mackenzie  Delta;  it  was  essential  therefore  to 
make  the  most  of  our  time  now. 

The  natives  here  are  generally  known  as  Kitdliner- 
miut;  that  is,  among  the  other  tribes  to  the  east- 
ward. And  the  use  of  the  word,  which  means 
"frontier'1  or  "boundary,"  among  the  tribes, to  the 
south  may  doubtless  be  taken  as  suggesting  that  the 
Etftiineamiut  are  "the  people  farthest  to  the  nortk1* 
They  constitute,  as  do  the  Netsilingmiut,  one  tribe, 
all  the  iBembers  of  which  are  acquainted,  and  o£te& 
meet  at  the  various  hunting  grounds,  but  certain 
subdivision  are  reckoned  with,  according  to  locafi^ 

There  are  the  Eqalugtomnut,  or  People  of  the  Rich 
Salmon  Rivers,  from  the  neaghbcchood  of  Camforidgp 
Bay  in  Victoria  Land,  numbering  98  souls,  of  which  |§ 
are  me&  and  44  women;  the  Almnmut,  c^  People  14^- 


LEO  HANSEN,  THE  FILM  PHOTOGRAPHER 


AN  EXUBERANT  FOLK  245 

ing  Away  to  One  Side,  on  the  shores  of  Queen  Maud 
Gtdf,  numbering  1 16,  of  which  70  are  meo  and  46  worn- 
ecu  (The  NetmEngmiut  call  them  Asiairaiut,  but 
their  own  pronxiixiation  of  tlie  name  is  as  given  above). 
Then  there  are  the  Ui33JiigmagtQnDiut»  between  Kent 
Peninsula  and  Bathurst  Inlet,  total  50,  of  which 
27  are  men  and  23  women;  and  finally  the  Kiluhig- 
tormiut,  or  People  at  the  Base  of  the  Deep  Fjord, 
from  Bathurst  Inlet,  numbering  113,  of  which  68  are 
men  and  45  women.  It  will  be  noticed  that  there 
is  throughout  a  surplus  of  men,  this  again  being  due 
to  the  killing  of  girl  children  at  birth. 

The  natives  of  Victoria  Land  live  mainly  by 
caribou  hunting  and  salmon  fishing  in  summer  and 
autumn.  Seal  hunting  is  carried  on  from  the  ice 
between  Kent  Peninsula  and  Victoria  Land,  some* 
times  extending  more  to  the  westward,  linking  tip 
with  the  Kiliihigtormiut  at  Bathurst  Inlet,  some- 
times mom  to  the  east,  meeting  the  Netsfliogmiut 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Liod  IslaadL  Hie  Ahiar- 
miut  also  move  up  to  the  Mrtii-€astward  la  the 
spring. 

These  Ahianmut  are  imdoubtedly  the  most 
nomadic  of  the  Eskimo  tribes,  and  thus  the  most 
skilful  and  hardy  travellers.  They  will  sometimes 
spend  the  summer  right  over  in  Victoria  Land ,  at 
Albeit  Edward  Bay,  at  other  times  penetrating  far 
into  the  interior  of  the  mainland,  taking  part  in  the 
great  trading  assemblies  widch,  prk>r  to  1^  f  onnaiaon 
of  the  trading  stations,  were  reguiarty  held  in  the 
Akilineq  hills,  right  up  in  the  Barren  Grounds, 
these  occasions  they  wooM 


246  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

forest  belt,  to  procure  timber  for  kayaks  and  sledgea 
They  are  regarded  as  not  only  the  most  skilful,  bat 
also  the  most  warlike  of  the  tribes.  And  their 
atanbers,  70  men  against  46  women,  also  suggest 
that  the  reputation  is  not  undeserved,  since  tfoete 
are  as  a  matter  of  fact,  more  girl  children  born  than 
boys.  At  any  rate,  the  dearth  of  women  would  be  a 
constant  source  of  strife  among  themselves,  and  a 
constant  incitement  to  the  carrying  off  of  wonim 
from  other  tribes. 

The  Umingmagtonniut  Eve  in  dose  contact  with 
the  people  from  Bathurst  Inlet,  having  at  certain 
times  o£  the  year,  the  same  hunting  grounds  for  seal, 
and  sepaiatiBg  only  in  the  spring,  when  they  move  up 
country  for  the  caribou  hunting,  from  Hay  to 
October.  They  make  for  Hope  Bay,  where  the 
country  is  hilly,  and  was  once  rich  in  musk  ox — 
hence  the  name*  There  are  still  plenty  of  caribou  in 
these  regions.  Only  last  summer  the  herds  passing 
ElHce  River  were  so  enormous  that  it  took  them 
three  days  to  cross  the  delta,  though  the  animals  wero 
always  on  the  move.  The  Ummgmagtonniut  how- 
erar,  profited  little  by  this  abundance,  as  owing  to  the 
ttse  of  firearms  following  on  the  establishment  of  the 
trading  station  at  Kent  Peninstala,  hunting  had 
beea  carried  on  to  such  effect  that  the  caribou  no 
longer  dai^d  to  cross  into  Victoria  Land  or  scatter 
westward  as  ibey  bad  done  f  oisoaeriy* 

Hie  failure  of  the  caribou  httntmg  is  a  serious 
matter  in  a  district  where  so  much  depends  oa  it* 
Kent  Peninstda  itself  is  well  O&  t$*e  way  to  becoming 


AN  EXUBERANT  POLK  247 

I  had  now  to  choose  a  field  of  work  for  myself  from 
among  these  various  peoples.  I  was  at  first  chiefly 
inclined  to  visit  the  Eqaltagtoraiiut,  but  as  both 
Stefansson  and  Diamond  Jenness  had  already  been  in 
Victoria  Land,  and  had  described  some  of  the  tribes 
farther  to  the  north-west,  I  decided  finally  to  patron- 
ize the  Uniingmagtormiut,  who  were  at  that  time 
to  be  found  on  a  small  island  not  far  from  Kent 
Peninsula,  where  they  were  making  preparations  for 
the  winter  sealing.  Here,  at  any  fate  I  should  be 
among  people  whom  no  previous  explorer  had 
described. 

On  the  22nd  of  November  we  reached  Makri- 
siorfik,  where  they  had  built  tlieir  camp  of  sncw  huts 
under  shelter  of  a  hilL  There  was  a  howling  Mis- 
said  on,  but  all  the  men  at  once  turned  out  to 
btriM  a  hut  for  us,  whik  tike  women  looked  after 
Anarulungnaq,  who  was  naturally  a  source  of 
interest.  Meat  and  fish  were  brought  us  in  abtm- 
dance  far  exceeding  our  present  needs;  indeed  our 
reception  from  the  first  was  typical  of  the  unstinted 
hospitality  with  winch  we  were  treated 


I  had  not  been  long  among  ttie  ^wwi^fm^ms^ 
before  I  realized  that  there  was  a  great  difference 
between  them  and  thoee  I  had  jtisfc  fcft  farthor  to  t^ 
cast  A  notable  feature  was  their  Kvdy  good 
humor  and  careless,  high-spirited  manner;  we 
found  it  neeessaiy/ 

more  exuberant  soak.  It  is  perfiaps  this  teait  in 
their  character  wbidi  has  led  the  other,  mflder- 
maanered  tribes  to  fear  the  Krtdfiaeni^  Cer- 
tainly they  had  some  reason  to  be  proud  of  tbeo- 


248  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

selves,  for  they  were  greatly  superior  in  many 
inspects  to  other  natives  I  met  with  in  Canada. 
Little  details  such  as  the  careful  ornamentation  of 
their  htmting  implements,  especially  their  bows  and 
arrows,  showed  that  they  had  a  sense  of  something 
beyond  mere  haad-to-mouth  necessities.  Their 
cleanliness  and  orderliness  were  remarkable,  and  their 
dress,  despite  the  shortage  of  material,  neat  almost  to 
the  point  of  elegance.  The  women  were  very  derar 
with  their  needle,  and  paid  far  more  attention  to  the 
decorative  side  of  their  dressmaking  than  did  the 
NetsJlingmitit  and  Hudson  Bay  natives.  I  found 
here,  moreover,  an  institution  which  I  had  not 
previously  met  with,  to  wit,  that  of  something 
approaching  "Sunday  clothes ";  they  had  special 
sets  of  garments  only  worn  on  special  occasions,  at 
festivals  in  the  great  dance  hall. 

It  was  not  altogether  easy,  among  these  kindly 
and  cheerful  souls,  to  secure  the  necessary  quiet 
and  relative  privacy  for  my  particular  work  Our 
hut  was  always  full  erf  visitors,  and  as  they  all  talked 
at  oace,  writing  was  done,  to  put  it  mildly,  under 
difficulties.  Both  men  and  women  seemed  to  be  born 
traders,  with  a  positive  passion  for  bargaining;  it 
was  nac*re  tfra:n  a  form  of  sport  with  them,  it  was 
ie®Hy  aa  ark  This  was  useful  to  m  of  course,  in 
a®  far  as  ifc  enabled  tts  to  add  to  o&r  ethnographical 
OGSectk>nsr  but  cm  the  other  haad,  it  was  not  fang 
before  une  liad  Jbotight  as  mtidt  as  we  iett  we  cottki 
afiord,  Otir  Meads  fasere  were  not  o^er-modesfc  m 
tli^r  goods,  Tweaty-firo  doHais  they 


AN  EXUBERANT  FOLK  249 

wfaea  this  was  rejected,  they  would  ask  for  something 
odd  as  an  alternative;  as  for  instance  "the  one  half" 
of  my  rather  expensive  prism  binoculars.  They 
would  give  away  all  sorts  of  things,  such  as  food  and 
even  clothing,  in  the  most  generotis  fashion;  but  as 
soon  as  it  came  to  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  deal, 
their  ideas  of  value  were  the  more  extravagant. 
Forttinately  for  me,  the  one  thing  on  which  they 
seemed  to  set  no  value  at  all  was  their  time;  and  a 
few  comparatively  trifling  presents  were  reckoned 
ample  return  for  whole  days  of  interviewing  and 
interrogation  as  to  implements,  culture,  ceremonies 
and  belief,  and  folklore  generally. 

A  detailed  account  of  the  manners  and  customs 
of  the  Musk  Ox  People  would  necessarily  involve 
mudi  repetition  of  matter  already  noted  in  con- 
nection  with  the  other  tribes.  I  will  here  give 
briefly  some  of  the  more  characteristic  features 
which  distinguish  them  from  the  rest* 

They  are  to  begin  with  the  most  poetically  gifted  of 
aH  the  tribes  I  met  with,  and  their  songs  are  not 
restricted  to  epic  and  narrative  forms,  hunting 
achievements  and  the  like,  but  include  also  more 
lyrical  elements  in  which  f eefing  and  atmosphere 
predoinmate.  Their  artistic  temperaineat  is  re- 
sected, moreover,  in  their  actions,  which  do  not 
always  agree  with  the  white  man's  ideas  of  morality- 
Before  passing  on  to  a  consideration  of  their  qualities 
as  singers,  poets  and  htmting  cooipank&is,  I  wffl 
endeavor  to  show  how  they  are  regained  by  f&e 
Canadian  Mounted  Police,  who  ooce  had  a  patrol 
tip  here. 


250  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

In  1913,  two  American  scientists,  Radford  and 
Street,  made  a  sledge  trip  through  the  Barim 
Grounds  to  the  shores  of  the  Arctic.  At  the  base  of 
Bathurst  Inlet,  wishing  to  engage  assistance  for  the 
next  stage  of  the  journey,  they  came  into  conflict  with 
the  natives,  with  the  result  that  both  men  were 
stabbed  to  death.  Radford  is  described  as  an 
excitable  person,  who  thrashed  one  of  the  natives 
for  refusing  to  accompany  them,  and  thus  doubtless 
brought  the  disaster  upon  himself.  It  is  not  least 
interesting  here  to  note  the  account  given  by  the 
leader  of  the  police  patrol  as  to  the  Eskimos  of 
Bathurst  Inlet.  He  did  not  meet  the  actual  mur- 
derers hmiseUf ,  but  only  some  others  of  their  tribe 
am!  these  he  characterizes  as  born  thieves,  terrible 
liars  and  altogether  unreliable;  indeed  he  would  not 
be  surprised  to  hear  of  more  murders  before  long,  as 
any  one  of  them  would  sell  his  soul  for  a  rifle. 

Oddly  enough,  Leo  Hansen  and  I  had,  while  at 
Malerisiorfik,  lived  for  nearly  a  month  with  two  of  the 
wanted  murderers,  Hagdlagdlaoq  and  Qaoijaq,  the 
latter,  indeed*  being  our  host  for  part  of  the  tima 
Ami  we  found  them  both  kindly,  helpful  and 
affectionate;  thoroughly  good  fellows,  all  round.  It 
smst  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  people 
tafce  an  entirely  different  view  of  human  life  from 
tii&$  which  obtains  among  ourselves. 

Mr.  Clarke  and  I  once  made  enquiry  amougtte 
inhabitants  of  one  encampment,  and  found  that  out 
of  fifteen  famjjjfes,  there  was  not  a  single  fufl-grewa 
mm  who  had  not  been  in  some  way  involved  in  tfee 
Hffiog  of  another.  As  I  have  already  noted  among 


AN  EXUBERANT  FOLK  251 

the  NetsiBngmiut,  the  man  who  has  killed  another 
is  by  no  means  necessarily  a  bad  man  oa  that  account; 
on  the  contrary,  such  may  often  prove  to  be 
among  the  most  skilful  and  useful  members  erf  their 
own  little  community,  whose  help  and  guidance  and 
example  are  invaluable  to  their  fellows. 

At  the  beginning  of  December,  Netsit,  a  young 
Eskimo,  expert  in  folk  tales,  went  off  with  me  on  a 
little  journey  to  visit  a  camp  in  Bathuist  Inlet,  where 
men  were  getting  ready  for  the  seal  hunting.  Bath* 
urst  Inlet  is  a  great  f  jordf  with  mountains  on  either 
side,  a  welcome  relief  after  the  monotonous  lowlands 
to  the  east.  The  country  here  reminded  me  of 
Greenland  but  was  somehow  colder  and  harsher* 

Netsit  and  I  did  not  talk  much  oa  the  way;  there 
was  nothing  to  make  us  communicative  in  our  sur- 
roundings, and  we  had  hardly  got  to  know  each  other 
as  yet.  At  the  end  of  the  first  day's  ran,  we  found  a 
comfortable  snowdrift,  and  proceeded  to  build  our- 
selves a  hut  for  the  night. 

I  had  with  me  a  few  cigarettes,  winch  I  toept  for 
special  occasions,  and  this  evening,  after  a  meal  and  a 
cup  of  coffee,  felt  inclined  to  indulge.  I  therefore 
lit  a*  dgainefcte  aad  gave  one  to  my  cxmpanbiL  To 
my  surprise,  he  did  not  ligfct  tip  hkasdf,  but  packed 
the  cigarette  carefully  away  in  a  piece  of  rag. 

Our  so0w  hut  would  IK*  perhaps  h&ve  been  con- 
sidered specially  warm  and  cosy  by  any  saw  those 
who  had  like  ourselves  been  thraflMftg  for  ten  hoars 


ns;  we  felt  in  the  mood  for  a  Httle 


252          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

We  made  an  extra  cup  of  coffee,  and  I  suggested  that 
Netsit  should  tell  a  story  or  so.  To  make  ourselves 
thoroughly  comfortable  before  starting,  we  gave  the 
hut  a  good  coating  of  loose  snow  to  caulk  any  possible 
leaks,  sealed  up  the  entrance  so  that  not  a  breath  of 
air  could  get  in,  and  then  settled  down  in  our  sleeping 
bags,  entertainer  and  audience  ready  to  drop  off  as 
soon  as  either  wished. 
Here  is  one  of  his  stories. 

Two  men  met  while  out  hunting.  One  of  them  had 
caught  a  wolf  in  a  trap,  and  the  other  had  shot  a 
caribou  with  Ms  bow  and  arrows;  each  had  the  skin 
of  his  beast  slung  over  his  shoulders. 

SaM  one:  "That  is  a  very  fine  caribou  skin  you 
have  there/* 

And  the  other  answered:  "That  is  a  very  fine 
wolf  skin  you  have  there." 

And  then  they  fell  to  talking  about  the  skins,  and 
the  look  and  the  state  of  them;  and  at  last  one  said: 

"  There  is  more  hair  on  the  caribou  skin." 

"No,  no,"  answered  the  other,  "the  wolf  has  more 
hair  than  the  caribou," 

And  they  grew  so  excited  over  this  question  that 
the  two  of  them  straightway  sat  down  where  they 
were,  and  the  man  with  the  caribou  skin  began  count- 
ing the  hairs  in  it,  pulling  than  out  one  by  one*  And 
beside  hitn  sat  the  man  with  the  wolfs  pelt,  counting 

i,ptdE^ 


Iialfs  ia  the  coat  of  wolf  aaid  caribou,  if  we  once  start 
counting  tbteoi  oee  by  one.    And  it  took  them  days, 
Day  after  day  the  two  of  them  sat  there,  puffiag  out 
hairs  and  cotinting,  counting.  ,  .  . 
And  each  held  that  his  own  had  more  than  the 


AN  EXUBERANT  FOLK  253 

41  The  caribou  has  more  thaja  the  wolf /'said  the  one. 

11  The  wolf  has  more  than  the  caribou/'  said  the 
others 

And  neither  would  give  in ,  and  at  last  they  both 
died  of  hunger. 

That  is  what  happens  when  people  busy  them- 
selves with  aimless  things  and  insignificant  trifles. 

I  listened  with  interest  to  one  story  after  another, 
and  Netsit,  encouragsd  by  my  appreciation,  went  on 
ttatiringly.  He  told  a  host  of  storks  that  evening. 
Of  the  Boy  who  lived  with  a  Bear,  The  Bear  that 
turned  into  a  Cloud,  The  Eagle  that  carried  of  a 
Woman;  The  Woman  that  would  not  Many  and 
Turned  into  Stone;  Navarana,  the  Eskimo  Giri  Who 
Betrayed  her  People  to  the  Indians;  The  Man  who 
made  Salmon  out  of  Splinters  of  Wood;  and  The  In- 
land-dweiler  with  a  Dog  as  Big  as  a  Mountain — aad 
so  on  and  so  on*  Maay  of  them  were  but  different 
versions  of  stones  current  in  Greenland,  and  ooe  little 
fable  I  remembered  distinctly  havtog  heaixi  almost 
word  for  word  years  ago  at  my  own  place  in  Tbnle, 
This  tmif ormity  is  the  more  remarkable  when  we 
reflect  that  there  has  been  no  sort  of  intercourae 
between  the  two  peoples  for  at  least  a  thousand  years. 

Another  odd  little  fable  is  worth  noting,  not  least 
for  the  narrator's  commeat.  It  is  one  of  the  old 
stocks  of  the  Fox  and  the  Wolf. 

A  for  and  a  wolf  met  oae  day  cttt  on  a  frozen  lake. 

"I  see  ywt  catdi  satooo,  Pox/'  saM  the  nciH  **I 
wish  yott  would  tell  o^  how  you  niaimgeit/^ 

"I  wiUshowyou,"saidtbefoK,  And  leading  the 
wolf  towards  a  crack  in  the  ice,  it  said: 


254          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

"Just  put  your  tail  right  down  under  the  water, 
and  wait  till  you  fed  a  fish  biting;  then  pull  it  up  with 
a  jerk" 

AM  the  wolf  put  its  tail  down  through  the  ice, 
while  the  fox  ran  off  and  hid  among  some  bushes  c& 
the  shore,  from  where  it  could  see  what  happened, 
The  wolf  stayed  there,  with  its  tail  in  the  water,  until 
it  froze.  Then  too  late  it  realized  that  the  fox  had 
been  deceiving  it;  there  was  no  getting  the  tail  free, 
and  at  last  it  had  to  snap  off  the  tail  in  order  to  free 
itself.  Then  following  on  the  track  of  the  fox,  it 
came  up,  eager  for  revenge.  But  the  fox  had  seen  the 
wolf  rnrning,  and  tore  a  leaf  from  the  bushes  and  held 
it  in  frxmt  of  its  eyes,  blinking  and  winking  all  the 
time  against  the  light, 

Said  tfee  wolf :  "Have  you  seen  the  fox  that  made 
me  lose  my  tail?0 

Said  the  fox:  "No,  I  have  had  a  touch  of  saow- 
blindness  lately,  and  can  hardly  see  at  all."  And  it 
held  up  the  leaf  and  blinked  and  winked  again- 

And  the  wolf  believed  it,  and  went  off  on  the  track 
of  another  fox. 

This  seemed  an  odd  sort  of  ending,  and  I  said  as 
m&tih.  "What  is  it  supposed  to  mean  exactly?"  I 


"H'm*  well/*  answered  Netsit,  "we  don't  really 
trouble  ourselves  so  much  about  the  meaning  of  a 
story,  as  toaag  as  it  is  amusing.  It  is  onty  the  white 
men  who  must  always  have  reasons  and  meaiiings 
m  anything.  And  that  is  why  oar  elders  always 
say  we  should  fcneat  white  mea  as  chadrea  who  always 
want  their  own  way .  Htli^cba*tgetit,  they  mate 
110  end  of  a  fuss." 

I  teft  it  at  that. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  PLAY  OF  SPIRIT 

\ Y/E  started  out  again  the  following  naming  before 
"  it  was  light.  When  we  had  been  driving  for  a 
couple  of  hours,  a  little  interrttptioii  took  place,  which 
rather  mystified  me  at  the  time.  We  were  driving 
across  a  big  fjord,  more  than  60  ion.  wide  at  this 
part,  and  were  just  passing  a  steep  rocky  island,  that 
stood  out  in  the  gloom  like  a  huge  black  monument 
against  the  white  snow.  Suddenly  Netsit  begged  me 
to  halt  for  a  moment.  I  held  in  the  dogs  as  well  as  I 
could,  and  he  proceeded  to  climb  the  mass  of  rock. 
He  stopped  some  distance  up,  and  knelt  down; 
there  was  barely  light  enough  to  xnafce  out  what  he 
was  doing.  I  saw  him  digging  a  hole  in  the  saow 
with  his  knife;  then  he  took  out  the  cigarette  I  had 
given  fr**yi  the  night  before,  placed  it,  with  a  couple  of 
matches,  carefully  in  the  hole  aad  covered  all  oror 
with  snow  once  more.  Througjh  the  howling  of  the 
gale  I  could  hear  *»***  reciting  something,  ending  tip 
with  a  f  ew  words  to  call  attention  to  the  valuable  gift 
he  had  just  deposited  in  tihesaow,  I  wrote  down  the 
earEer  part  afterwards:  it  was  as  follows: 

Big  Man,  big  Man, 
Make  smooth  yoor  big  haads 
Asad  your  big  feet, 
255 


256          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Make  them  swift-running 
And  look  far  ahead. 
Big  Maa,  big  Man, 
Smooth  out  your  thoughts 
And  look  far  ahead. 
Big  Man,  big  Man, 
Let  fall  your  weapons  now. 

Then  he  came  running  back  to  me  and  we  ccm- 
tkmed  our  journey. 

What  had  happened,  as  I  afterwards  found,  was 
this.  He  had  been  paying  a  visit  to  the  grave  of  his 
father,  Hatsiaq,  who  had  been  a  great  wizard  in  his 
time*  Netsit  thought  that  the  gift  of  so  unusual  a 
luxury  as  a  cigarette  would  surely  have  power  to  call 
up  the  soul  of  the  dead  man,  and  secure  his  pro- 
tection for  us  against  the  troublesome  weather  we 
were  having.  It  is  generally  held  that  the  souls  of 
the  dead  remain,  for  the  first  few  years  after  death, 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  grave.  "Grave,"  however,  is 
hardly  the  proper  word  in  this  case,  as  no  grave  is 
dug,  the  bodies  being  simply  laid  out  and  left  to  the 
mercy  of  prowling  beasts.  The  immortal  soul,  how- 
ever, caa  look  after  itself,  and  needs  no  shelter. 

The  verses  noted  above  were  a  f  ormtda  designed  to 
pr^itiate  the  spirit  of  the  departed,  They  have 
bem  haitded  down  from  very  ancient  times  for  use  on 
special  occasions,  aad  are  supposed  to  be  highly 
effective* 

Ami  certainly,  in  our  case,  it  ^ppeared  as  if  the 
laaaented  Ilatsiajq  fa^d  appreciated  Ms  cigarette. 
For  oa  the  following  morabg,  o&  cutting  a  hole  in  the 


THE  PLA  Y  OP  SPIRIT  257 

side  of  our  hut  to  see  what  the  weather  was  like,  we 
found  to  our  delight  that  it  was  a  fine,  calm,  frosty 
day. 

Two  more  of  the  same  sort  followed,  with  deli- 
cious rest  at  night  in  fresh  saow  huts,  and  we  readied 
the  base  of  the  fjord,  where  the  "band  of  murderers" 
were  understood  to  be.  On  the  third  day,  about 
noon,  we  came  upon  three  sledges  loaded  up  with 
firewood,  in  charge  of  a  party  of  boys  and  giife. 
The  young  people  answered  our  greetings  cheerfully, 
and  informed  us  where  the  village  lay;  it  was  a  big 
one,  by  their  account:  "Inuit  amigaitut" — a  whole 
world  of  people,  they  said*  And  soon,  for  the  first 
time  in  many  long  weeks,  we  were  driving  down  a 
regular  track  worn  deep  by  the  passing  and  repassLog 
of  many  sledges. 

The  place  was,  certainly,  a  big  one  by  Eskimo 
standards:  over  thirty  huts  stood  grouped  round  the 
sides  of  a  natural  amphitheatre,  and  in  the  midst,  one 
glittering  white  hall  bigger  than  afi  the  rest.  This 
was  the  Dance-house,  Temple,  and  centre  of  festivi- 
ties and  solemnities  generally;  btrift  out  of  a  saow 
drift  in  the  waste,  by  these  ruffians  of  sinister  repute. 

Smoke  rose  foam  the  chimneys — yes,  there  w«sre 
chimneys,  tigly  black  things  sticking  tip  brutally 
through  the  white  saow  roofs  from  the  patent  stoves 
within;  spoking  the  picture  no  doubt,  but  a  wdbonae 
sight  to  the  haif-frozen  traveller  for  all  that* 

The  place  seeoas  qtdte  a  metwspolis  after  what  ire 
have  been  aocostomed  to  for  monlbs  past;  and  wfaea 
the  inmates  cocoe  tumbling  out  of  their  barrows 
we  fed  ourselves  in  ii^  midst  o£  a 


258          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 


very  noisy,  boisterous  crowd,  though 
enough  when  one  knows  how  to  deal  with 
The  natives  here  are  by  no  means  the  shy  and 
able  creatures  that  one  finds  in  Greenland.  They 
are  accustomed  to  treat  visitors  without  ceremony  ^ 
and  see  no  reason  to  alter  their  ways  for  a  white  inaa 
Indeed,  the  appearance  of  one  all  alone  seems  to  be 
taken  as  an  excellent  opportunity  for  a  little  rcmgjb 
horseplay. 

One  of  them  tries  to  take  my  pipe  out  of  my  motitii 
—but  very  soon  learns  he  had  better  not!  Anotter 
pulls  at  my  tonic,  a  bob-tailed  arrangement  of  the 
Cape  York  type;  but  soon  finds  out  his 


And  when  I  begin  unloading,  preparatory  to  feeding 
my  dogs,  the  women  come  pressing  forward  aad 
beggmg  for  blubber.  Their  own  seal-hunting  season 
has  not  yet  begun,  and  the  fresh,  pink  blubber  in 
hard-frozen  dabs  makes  their  mouths  water,  I  had 
to  keep  them  back. 

"Do  you  think  I  have  come  all  this  way  to  feet 
you  with  blubber?  This  is  for  my  dogs;  and  ymi 
have  men  enough  to  look  after  you,  Why  don't 
start  getting  seal  for  yourselves  if  you  are  so 
for  blabber?" 

There  was  a  geoieral  latigh  at  this.  B  tit  I  was  alose 
against  the  crowd  of  them,  for  Netsit  was  their  kiss- 
man  more  than  my  oc^npanioii,  and  looked  ©a  higidy 
at  it  alL 


"Who  are  y®&?    Ane  jnoa  a  trader  come  to 
foxes?'' 

alookat  yoi*T  aiidsee  wbai 


TOE  PLAY  OP  SPIRIT 

At  which  they  laugh  more  uproariously  than 
before.  But  one  of  the  elders  answers,  a  little 
hesitatingly,  not  knowing  whether  to  take  my 
words  in  jest  or  earnest: 

"  H'm.  Well,  you  will  find  all  manner  of  folk  here. 
Some  of  them  are  quite  nice  to  look  at,  but  most  are 
ugly,  and  you  will  find  little  pleasure  in  looking  at 
their  faces." 

AH  this  was  very  amusing  as  far  as  it  went. 

I  realized,  however,  that  it  was  essential  to  show 
them  a  bold  front,  if  I  wished  to  keep  them  in  hand, 
and  therefore  came  straight  to  the  point. 

"I  have  come  to  you  alone,  though  ill  things  are 
said  of  you  in  other  parts.  It  is  not  many  years 
since  two  white  men  were  killed  here;  and  the  Police 
do  not  speak  well  of  you  to  travellers.  But  I  am  not 
afraid  of  meeting  you  alone,  as  you  can  see." 

"It  was  not  our  fault!  It  was  tibe  white  men  who 
began  the  quarrel.  We  ate  peaceable  enoogh,  only 
somewhat  given  to  foa;  tod  «£  singi^  and  laughter, 
arKiwithnoe^thcnightaskwgaswearenota&aidL 
Yott  are  our  friend  and  need  fear  no  harm." 

Certainly,*  they  did  their  best  now  to  set  me  at 
my  ease.  I  was  led  to  a  snow  hut  ia  which  quar- 
ters had  been  assigned  to  us  both.  Our  hostess, 
Qernartoq,  received  us  with  the  greatest  hospitality; 
though.  I  afterwards  learned  that  her  husband  had 
beeakifled  by  Neteit's  father!  This  however  did  not 
appear  to  affect  our  friendly  rdatkws  ia  the  least, 

I  had  put  on  my  sternest  manner  in  order  to  Joeep 
the  more  impertinent  at  a  distance.  Boll  cooH 
not  keep  up  the  pose  very  loag.  *  A  wettaan  casae  up 


260          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

to  me,  and  placing  one  hand  on  my  shoulder,  looked 
me  ftdl  ill  the  face  and  said: 

"Tefl  me,  straoger;  are  you  the  sort  of  man  who 
has  oever  a  smile  for  a  woman?  " 

I  laughed  alodd;  I  could  not  help  it.  And  with 
that  the  ice  was  broken  all  round. 

I  spent  the  first  few  hours  going  visiting  from 
house  to  house.  All  were  of  the  same  type,  fine  laige 
snow  huts,  but  altered  out  of  all  recognition  as 
Esknno  dwellings  by  the  metal  stoves  and  their 
long  chimney  pipes  stackrng  up  through  the  roof  . 
They  used  brushwood  for  fuel,  which  sent  out  a 
powerful  heat,  but  the  so&w  roof  was  so  cleverly  oon- 
stmcfced  that  it  hardly  dripped  at  aJL  Here  and 
there  one  might  find  a  hole  melted  through,  but  the 
draught  was  pleasant  rather  than  the  reverse. 

In  the  ercmng  thwe  was  an  entertainment  in  the 
dance  house,  which  was  big  enottgh  to  hold  sixty  with 
ease.  It  was  built  of  snow  like  the  test,  only  on  a 
larger  scale.  Niches  were  cut  in  the  walls  half  way 
up,  and  small  blubber  tamps  placed  in  these,  thix3w- 
ing  a  weird  light  over  the  assembly.  In  the  middle 
of  tie  hall  stood  the  leader  of  the  revels  with  a  huge 
drain  in  Ids  hand,  and  round  him  the  n&en  and  women 
the  efaortss.  Hie  drum  is  held  in  the 


left  feaafl;  and  consists  of  a  whole  caribou  hide 
stretched  OG  a  thick  wooden  hoop;  its  weight  alone  is 
fift  trifle,  afid  it  uaeds  coaisiderable  physical  strength 
to  take  the  part  of  drummer,  dancer,  and  leader  of 
the  thorns  aB  at  oace,  often  for  an  bottr  or  mane 
at  a  time.  The  dancing,  which  consists  o£  hops 
and  leaps  and  writhings  of  ttte  body,  steadily  ae- 


THE  PLA  Y  OF  SPIRIT 

by  the  drum,  is  likewise  exhausting, 
and  the  performers  are  Hnxp  with  beat  and  exertion 
when  their  "  turn  "  comes  to  an  end. 

Everything  is  done  to  make  these  eatertammeats 
in  the  dance  hall  as  festive  as  possible;  both  men  and 
women  wear  special  costumes,  gaily  decorated  with 
patterns  of  fine  white  skin*  The  men  fasten  white 
ermine  on  back  and  shoulders,  the  tails  fluttering  as 
they  move;  both  men's  and  women's  boots  are 
beautifully  embroidered  in  white  and  red.  The 
headdress  is  a  kind  of  patchwork  helmet,  with  the 
beak  of  a  loon  sticking  up  like  a  spike  on  top* 

I  had  never  heard  spirit  songs  delivered  by  a 
chorus  before,  and  a  few  of  those  peculiar  to  this 
tribe  were  included  in  the  programme  "by  request/' 
Later  in  the  evening,  songs  of  recent  date  were  given, 
turn  and  turn  about  with  "classics"  by  the  ancient 
masters.  I  managed  later  to  write  down  the  text  of 
all  these  songs,  of  which  a  few  are  bate  given.  It 
should  be  noted,  however,  thai  when  song,  the  same 
lines  are  constantly  repeated,  so  that  a  text  of  but  a 
few  verses  may  last  half  an  hour  or  more*1 

SPIRIT  SONGS 
I 

Spirit  horn  the  Air, 
Come,  oome  swiftly  hither, 
Thy  wizard  here 
Is  calling  thee, 


tiC  tlwsaecfaaaifiEB  was  k*t  early  in  the  fTp*fttify>,  aad  oewld  not  lit 


262  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Come  asid  bite  ill-luck  to  death, 
Spirit  from  the  Air 
Come,  come  swiftly  hither. 

I  rise. 

Rise  ttp  amid  the  spirits, 

Wizards  help  me, 

Lift  me  tip  amid  the  spirits, 

Child,  O  Child,  great  Child, 
Rise  tip  and  come  hither 
Child,  Child, 
Great  Chi&L     Little 
Rise  tip  among  us! 


The  little  seamew 
Hovers  above  us, 
Staring  and  scolding. 
Its  bead  is  white. 
Its  beak  opens  gaping, 
The  fittle  rottnd  eyes 
See  far,  see  fceeoly. 
Qutiuk,  qutiukl 

The  Httle  tern 
Hovers  above  tts; 


Its  be^3  is  black, 
Its  beak  opesis  gaping, 
TTlie  fittle  arocs^d  eyes 
See  Car,  see 


THE  PLAY  OF  SPIRIT 

Tfaebigmvea 

Hovers  above  us 

Staring  and  scolding. 

Its  head  is  black. 

Its  beak  is  sharp,  as  if  it  had  teeth. 

Qara — qara! 

III 

Whither  is  my  sool  gone? 

Let  me  fetch  thee,  let  me  fetch  thee! 

It  is  gone  to  the  southward  of  those 

Who  Eve  to  the  southward  of  m. 

Let  me  fetch  thee, 

Let  me  fetch  thee! 

Whither  is  my  soul  goae  away? 
It  is  gone  to  the  eastward  of  those 
Who  five  to  the  eastward  o€  us. 
Let  me  fetch  t£*ee, 
Let  me  fetch  thee. 

Whither  is  mj  soul  gone  away? 

It  is  gooe  to  the  northward  of  those 

Who  Eve  Borthward  of  us. 

Let  me  fetch  thee, 

Let  me  fetch  thee! 

Whither  is  my  soml  gooe  away? 
It  is  gene  to  the  westward  of  those 
WlK>  liw  westwaixi  of  us. 
Let  irte  fetch  tfaee, 
Let  me  fetch  ihee! 


264  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

IV 

I  will  visit 
Unknown  woman, 
Search  out  hidden  things 
Behind  the  man, 

Let  the  boot-thong  hang  loose — 
Seek  thou  under  man 
And  tinder  woman! 
Smooth  out  the  wrinkled  cheeks, 
Smooth  wrinkles  out, 

I  walked  on  the  ice  of  the  sea, 

Seal  were  blowing  at  the  blowholes— 
Woaadering  I  heard 
Hae  song  of  the  sea 

And  the  great  sighing  of  the  new-formed  ice. 
Go,  then,  go! 

Strength  of  soul  brings  health 
To  the  place  of  feasting. 

A  DEAJ>  MAN'S  SOHG 
(Aijuk's  song,  dreamed  by  PauKnaoq.) 

I  am  filed  with  joy 

Wbegaerraa:  the  dawn  rises  over  the  earth 

And  the  great  sun 

<3fi$gs  tip  in  the 


I  fie  In  horror  and  dread 


"Itefc  eat  tibeir  way  m  through  hollowed  booe 
And  bore  eyes  away, 


THE  PLAY  OF  SPIRIT  365 


In  fear  I  tie,  remembering: 

Say,  was  it  so  beautiful  on  earth? 

Think  of  the  winters 

When  we  were  anxious 

For  soles  to  our  footwear 

Or  skins  for  our  boots: 

Was  it  90  beautiful? 

In  fear  and  in  horror  I  lie, 

But  was  I  not  always  troubled  in  mind, 

Even  in  the  beautiful  summer, 

When  the  hunting  failed, 

And  there  was  dearth  of  ekins 

For  clothing  arid  sleeping? 

Was  it  so  beautiful? 

In  fear  and  in  horror  I  Be 

But  was  I  not  always  troubled  in  mind 

When  I  stood  on  the  sea  ice 

Wretched  beyood  measure 

Because  no  fish  would  bite? 

Or  was  it  so  beautiful 

When  X  flushed  with  shame  and  dismay 

10  the  midst  of  the  gathering, 

And  the  chorus  laughed 

Because  I  forgot  my  song  and  its  words? 

Was  that  so  beautiful? 

Say,  was  it  so  beautiful  on  earth? 
Here,  I  am  fifled  witfa  joy 
Whenever  the  dawn  rises  over  the  eartfa 
And  the  great  sun 
Glides  up  in  the  heavens. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  BATTLE  WITH  EVIL 


I  HAD  now  enough  material  for  a  whole  monograph 
1  on  the  Mtask  Ox  People.  There  were  the  four 
main  sections:  the  Willow-folk  or  Caribou  EskiiBo, 
the  Hudson  Bay  tribes,  the  Netsilingmiut  or  Seal 
Eskimo,  and  now  the  Musk  Ox  People.  It 


to  procure  supplementary  material  from  the  western 
tribes  of  the  Mackenzie  Delta,  Alaska,  Bering  Straits 
and  Siberia,  The  country  between—  that  is,  the 
coast  from  Bathurst  Inlet  to  Baillie  Island—  -had 
been  visited  and  described  by  Stefansson's  Expedi- 
tion during  his  first  visit  to  these  regions,  and  later 
by  Dr.  Diamond  Jenness,  Ethnographer  to  Stefans- 
son's  last  Expedition,  the  so-called  Canadian  Arctic 
Expedition,  1913-18.  Pew  have  tmderctood  tfag 
Eskimo  so  well  as  StdEansson,  or  had  the  power  of 
living  their  fife  and  entering  into  thek  way  erf 
tlioaght;  and  no  modem  writer  has  given  a  more 
and  detailed  descript^ 

I   could   therefore   with   an   easy 


pass  Barfly  over  t&is  section 
*ny  fasfc  field  of  ^sric  to  t&e  n€s±  was  a 
2200 


to  fofc  covered  as  rapidly  as  poesabfe,  fiK^agb  at  tfae 
time  I  should  fcaim  to  make  &a3ts  cm  tlie  way  f 

268 


4 

ll 


It 


if 


THE  BATTLE  WITH  EVIL  269 

and  form  some  acquaintance  with  the  natives  for 
purposes  of  cx>mparison. 

We  divided  the  dogs  into  two  teams,  small  teams 
they  were,  considering  cmr  load.  I  and  Anaruhing- 
uaq  had  to  make  do  with  six  of  the  best 


taking,  however,  the  smaller  of  the  two  sledges,  and  a 
comparatively  light  load,  erf  some  300  kilos.  Miteq 
had  ten  dogs,  and  was  to  drive  Leo  Hanseo  with  his 
camera  and  other  impedimenta,  their  load  amount- 
ing I  should  say  to  something  approaching  500  kike. 
Thanks  to  the  invaluable  method  of  ice-shoebgf 
however,  ire  were  able  from  tbe  first  to  travel  at  a 
fine  smart  pace,  which  hrottght  us  through  well  tip 
to  time, 

We  started  in  a  smother  of  snow,  that  drove  right 
in  ottr  faces,  with  the  thermometer  at  minus  42.  Our 
first  objective  WES  Malerisiorfik,  where  we  had  to 
pick  up  some  of  our  effects  left  there  from  oor  pro- 
viocts  visit.  Here  we  were  stormborai^ 
to  get  away  on  the  i8th  of  January,  thoGgti  &  was 
still  snowing  hanL  On  tbe  2ist  we  rotcaded  Cape 
Barrow,  and  after  fcSowiijg  tbe  corofe—ltm  granite 
rock  for  tbe  most  part—for  a  few  hoars,  we  shaped 
otir  ccwrse  for  a  high,  steep  proiiJOGtory  some  distai^ 
ahead.  Before  we  reached  it,  borweror,  a  &5f  came 
down  and  we  ware  beginning  to  f  e^  tho^rcnjghly  lost, 
wbesa.  Hie  dogs  got  scent  of  something,  and  about 
three  o'dock  we  drove  into  a  village  out  on  the  ioe, 
and  were  f$o@xrad  with  great  friendfiaess.  Tfae 
place,  we  were  iBfomied,  was  caBed  Agiaq,  aad  the 
people  stykd  Ihemselvies  Ag^^ 
them  in  aflv  25  mea  and  21 


270          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Our  recent  experiences  had  led  us  to  adopt  a  certaia 
reserve  as  a  protection  against  the  exuberance  of  the 
native  welcome;  here,  however,  we  were  pleasa&fjy 
surprised  to  find  our  hosts  quiet  and  modest  almost  t0 
the  verge  of  shyness.  We  found  a  snowdrift 
handy,  and  managed,  with  their  help,  to  get  a 
built  just  in  time,  for  it  was  growing  dark,  and  there 
was  a  blizzard  coming  up.  It  came;  and  kept  us 
hung  up  there  from  the  afternoon  of  the  22nd  until 
the  26th.  All  that  time  we  were  literally  imprisooied 
in  our  snow  hut,  which  threatened  every  now 
them  to  fall  to  pieces  or  be  torn  away  by  the 
as  the  snow  from  which  it  was  made  had  been  tooscsffc 
to  start  with,  but  we  had  not  had  time  to  pick  and 
choose,  We  had  to  dash  out  every  now  and  l&ea 
to  patch  up  a  threatened  spot,  and  it  was  no  easy 
iimtteriiisiK^astoniL  TheblcKikswecutcrtiml^e^ 
between  ottr  fingers. 

During  these  four  days,  anyone  who  came  to  vfeil 
us  had  to  come  armed  with  a  snow  knife  in  case  6l 
getting  lost;  it  was  only  a  matter  of  five 


from  their  huts  to  ours,  but  all  the  same,  a  maanaigjbt 
go  to  his  death.  Despite  the  risk,  we  had  a  am- 
slant  stream  of  visitors,  £$£&,  women  and  children*, 
indoding  infants  in  arms,  or  in  the  amaut  that 
aoswejstoit.  And  I  found  myself  once  more  adnjir- 
iag  fbe  8GSQij&r  in  wfaidi  these  people  adapt 
selves  t*>  their  swi^itodings*  Ji^faecf—^m 
to  irisifc  a  M&&&  who  Irfes  fiw  mettles'  n*alk 
ctoor.  If  you  lose  yodf  way  it  is  deatb; 
lwB  ycfflf  saow  knife,  wMdb  of  oouise  y<w 
aot  foolish  etiou^i  to  leave  behi^i.  Armed  with 


THE  BATTLE  WITH  EVIL  271 

this,  you  have  only  to  build  yourself  another  little 
house  by  the  roadside,  and  here  you  can  settle  down 
in  safety,  if  not  in  comfort,  until  the  weather  dears. 
People  at  home  might  think  it  a  troublesome  way  of 
going  visiting  ;  but  here  it  is  considered  aJl  in  the  day's 
work,  or  the  day's  play,  and  all  adds  to  the  excite- 
ment of  the  visit. 

On  the  third  evening  we  were  f  oraaaDy  invited 
to  a  spirit  seance  in  one  of  the  huts.  The  invitatkm 
was  issued  by  one  Kingitina,  a  typical  blood  'Rgfcm**, 
with  a  bald  head,  reddish  beard,  and  a  touch  of  blue 
about  the  eyes*  We  were  given  to  understood  that 
the  starrodbild,  Narsuk,  was  angry,  and  it  was 
proposed  to  ascertain  if  possible  what  had  been  done 
to  offend  I***™,  with  a  view  to  propitiation,  that  the 
storm  might  be  called  off. 

It  took  us  something  like  half  an  hour,  Z  really 
believe,  to  cover  the  half  kilometre  we  had  to  go, 


found  otirsdhres  in  a  snow  hut  some  4  metres  by  6, 
bat  so  bigfr  that  the  roof  had  to  be  supported  by  two 
loog  pieces  of  driftwood,  that  looked  most  imposing 
as  black  pillars  in  this  white  hall.  There  was  ample 
room  for  all;  and  the  diildnea^  who  had  been  brougiit 
aioog  fay  tibeir  respective  parents,  played  hide  and 
seek  rotmd  the  pillars  while  the  preparations  were 


These  preparations  consisted  mainly  of  a  baoqttefc, 
the  meott  comprising  dried  salmon,  Uubber,  aad 
fraaea  seal  meat,  the  last  served  op,  00*  in  joists, 
bttt  in  whote  carcases,  from  wfakfa  slate  wm§  etrf; 
with  axes.  This  frozen  n^at  has  to  be  breathed 


274  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  A  MERICA 

and  at  last,  in  the  despairing  voice  of  one  who  can  do 
no  more,  he  cries,  "I  cannot,  I  cannot!" 

Than  comes  a  gurgling  sound,  interpreted  as 
meaning  that  a  helping  spirit  has  taken  possession  of 
his  body.  He  is  now  no  longer  master  of  himself,  but 
dances  about  among  the  rest,  calling  on  his  dead 
father  who  is  become  an  evil  spirit.  It  is  only  a  year 
since  his  father  died,  and  the  widow,  who  is  present, 
groans  aloud  and  endea  vors  to  comfort  her  son  in  his 
frenzy,  but  the  rest  will  not  have  it;  he  is  to  go  on,  gp 
<HI»  and  let  the  spirit  speak. 

He  then  mentions  several  spirits  of  the  dead,  that 
be  sees  before  him  among  the  living  audience.  He 
describes  their  appearance,  this  old  man  and  that  oid 
woman  whom  he  himself  has  never  seen,  and  calls  00 
those  present  to  say  who  they  are. 

Hie  audience  are  at  a  loss;  there  is  a  moment  of 
silence,  then  a  Whispering  among  the  women;  ooe 
mentions  hesitatingly  this  name  or  that. 

"No,  no,  that  is  not  right." 

The  men  look  on  in  silence,  tbe  women  growing 
more  excited,  all  save  the  widow,  who  sits  weeping 
and  rocking  from,  side  to  aide.  Then  suddesply  an 
old  woman  who  had  been  silent  tip  to  now,  jumps 
tjp  aad  utters  the  names  that  none  as  yet  have  dared 
to  mention;  a  man  and  a  woman  from  Nagjugtoq, 
lifer*  died  quite  recently. 


"They  aie  the  ones,"  cries  Herqaraaq  in  a  strange 
gasping  -roiefc,  aad  a  feeling  of  dread  takes  possession 
of  afl  at  the  thought  of  those  BOW  spirits  who  but  a 


THE  BATTLE  WITH  EVIL  375 

few  days  before  were  living  and  moving  among  them 
in  the  flesh.  And  to  think  it  was  they  who  woe 
causing  the  storm*  The  tenor  spread  through 
the  house;  the  mystery  of  life  hung  heavy  upon  all; 
here  were  happenings  beyond  their  xuKlerstaiKiii>g. 

Outside  the  storm  was  raging  in  blade  darkness,  and 
even  the  dogs,  who  are  not  allowed  inside  the  booses 
as  a  rule,  are  suffered  now  to  seek  shelter  aad  warmth. 
A  man  aiid  a  woman,  who  five  nesrt  dow,  btrt  had  lost 
their  way  T  come  in  with  mouths  and  eyes  choked  with 
snow.  Itisthethiiddaycrftliestori^  They  haw 
no  meat  for  tomorrow,  no  fuel;  and  the  threatening 
disaster  seems  all  at  once  nearer  and  more  real.  The 
storm  child  is  wailing,  the  women  are  moaning,  the 
men  murmur  inccniipi^eheDsible  words. 

After  about  an  hour  of  shouting  and  invocation  of 
raknown  I arses,  the  seance  tafces  a  new  turn-  To 
us,  who  have  not  previoitsly  assisted  at  a  tanmg  of 
the  storm-god,  the  next  devefopmeot  i»  Jborribfe 
tosee.  Horqaniaq leaps ort 
poor  tfttffenshre  old  Kiagiuna,  who  was  singing  a 
little  hymn  cm  his  own  account,  grabs  him  by  the 
throat  with  a  swift  snatching  moveoaeat,  and  ffiags 
him  backward  and  forward  amc^g  the  rest.  This 
goes  on  for  some  time;  with  hoarae  gaqps  from  both 
mes  at  first;  but  after  a  white  Eingiuna  chc^oes, 
and  can  utter  BO  sound  save  a  faint  wheezing;  tibm 
all  in  a  motnent  be  too  seems  to  fall  into  a  trance. 
He  makes  oo  resi^ 

swtmg  this  way  and  tt^afc ;  Hoixjara^  drags  him  abe«fc 
the  place,  heedless  of  any  rfek  to  ttofflsehte  or  the 
Some  of  the  B*»  pfeee  themeeivw  in  fremt  of 


276          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  lamps,  to  guard  gainst  accidents,  the  women 
drag  their  children  up  out  of  the  way  —  and  so  the 
ghastly  play  goes  on,  until  Horqarnaq,  Mtnsdl 
exhausted,  or  satisfied  that  he  has  done  eaottgjfa, 
drops  his  victim  in  a  heap  on  the  floor. 

Thus  the  wizard  battles  with  the  spirit  of  the 
storm  —  a  fellow-man  being  made  to  represent  it 
Finally,  he  stoops  down  over  the  still  unconsckms 
Eingiuna,  and  fixing  his  teeth  in  his  neck,  shakes  httn 
viciously,  as  a  dog  shakes  another  beaten  in  figfal 
Then  he  continues  his  wild  capers,  the  rest  looking 
on  in  silence,  until  at  last  the  frenzy  seems  to  die  out, 
and  he  kneels  down  beside  his  victim  stroking  the 
body  to  bring  it  back  to  life*    Slowly  the  other 
awakens,  and  rises  unsteadily  to  his  feet,  but  he  is 
haidty  up  before  the  wizard  is  upon  him  once  more, 
and  the  whole  dreadful  business  is  repeated  nsH 
KiBgiuna  again  lies  helpless  and  insensible  as  befom 
Yet  a  third  time  he  is  "killed"  in  this  horrible 
mummery;  that  man's  mastery  of  the  dements  may 
be  established  beyond  question.    But  when  lie  comes 
to  fife  for  the  third  time,  it  is  Horqarnaq  who  col- 
lapses, and  Kingitma  now  takes  the  active  part* 
Tfee  old  feBow,  with  his  tmwkldly  bulk,  seems 
tmfitted  for  anything  but  a  comic  part,  yet  the  wild 
loefe  in  his  eyes,  and  the  horrid  bluish  tiiige 
j*£  &*led  from  his  face,  ase  i 


be  looks  like  one  dragged  back  from  the 
dtitcfees  of  death.  Ail  step  back  involtmtarily  as 
with  his  foot  on  Horqaxnaq's  chest  ha  tells  what  be 
sees.  With  fluent  speech  and  a  voice  qmvericgwith 


THE  BATTLE  WITH  EVIL  277 

"The  heavens  are  foil  of  naked  beings  rushing 
through  the  air.  Naked  mm  and  women,  rushing 
along  and  raising  the  storm,  raising  the  blixzanL 

"  You  hear  it?    A  rushing  as  of  the  wings  erf 
binls,  up  in  the  air*    It  is  the  fear  of  naked  beings, 
the  flight  of  naked  mea, 

"The  spirit  of  the  air  drives  forth  the  storm,  the 
spirit  sends  the  whirling  snow  out  over  the  earth,  and 
the  helpless  storm-child,  Narsuk,  shakes  the  tangs  of 
the  air  with  its  weeping. 

"Hear  the  crying  of  the  child  in  the  shridring  of 
the  storm! 

"And  see  now— there  among  the  hosts  oi  naked 
ones  in  Sight  is  (Hie,  a  single  figure,  a  man  pierced  all 
into  holes  by  the  wind-  His  body  is  but  a  mass  of 
holes,  and  the  wind  howls  through  them — Tdbee-u~u- 
u;  tchee-u-u-tL  Hear!  He  is  the  mightiest  of  them 
all, 

"But  my  helping  spirit  dbatt  briagbimto  a  staad; 
bring  all  to  a  stand.  Here  be  comes,  striding  down 
sure  of  victory  towards  me*  He  w31  conquer,  he 
will  conquer— Tchee-ti-tHi,  Tdbefna!  Hark  to  tbfc 
wind!  Hist!  fast,  hst!  See  tie  spirits,  the  storm, 
the  wiM  weaker,  radii^ 
as  the  wings  of  rnighty  birds!" 

At  these  wotds  Horcjarnaq  gets  up  from  the 
Soor»  and  the  two  wissa^b,  their  faaes  now  trans- 
figttred  after  what  has  passaed,  Join  in  a 
to  tbe  Mother  of  the  Sea: 

Woffian,  Gi^at  Wooaan  dciwn  there! 

Tom  it  aside,  turn  it  aside  from  m,  that  cvfll 


278          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Come,  come  spirit  of  the  deep, 

One  of  thine  earth-dwellers 

Calls  upon  thee; 

Prays  thee  to  bite  our  enemies  to  death, 

Come,  Spirit  of  the  Deep! 

As  soon  as  the  two  had  sung  it  once,  all  preset 
joined  in  a  waiting,  imploring  chorus;  they  had  av 
idea  of  what  they  were  praying  to,  but  they  feifc 
the  power  of  the  ancient  words  their  fathers  had  susg. 
They  had  no  food  to  give  their  children  on  tfte 
morrow ;  aaad  they  prayed  the  powers  to  make  a  trace 
few:  their  hunting,  to  send  them  food  for  their  rfitl^t^ 

And  so  great  was  the  suggestive  power  of  what  had 
passed,  in  tbfe  wiM  place  too  near  to  the 
forces,  that  we  could  almost  see  it  all;  the  air 
witli  hurrying  spirit  forms,  the  race  of  the  storm 
across  the  sky,  hosts  of  the  dead  whirled  past  in  t|& 
whtrKng  snow;  wild  visions  attended  by  that  same 
rushing  of  mighty  wings  of  which  the  wizaixJs 


So  eskted  this  battle  with  the  storaa;  a  coatee* 
between  the  spirit  of  man  and  the  forces  of  natere. 
A^d  those  present  could  go  home  and  sleep  in  peace, 
confident  that  the  morrow  wotdd  be  fine. 

Jbi4  in  j?oint  of  fact,  m  it  proyeeL  Thro^ 
daraltfrg  stadigfat  over  firmly  packed  saow  we  drove 

t^ 


Bay  Com&mj  and  a  poKa^  |i©^|  cl  ibe  Cl  1L  B, 

kindly  received  by  tfee  Company's 
Mr.   S4aoGregorf   witli  wiiom  we 


THE  BATTLE  WITH  EVIL          279 

^ 

hills.  No  natives  lived  here  except  an  old  couple 
who  were  to  be  taken  down  to  Herschel  Island  as 
witnesses  in  a  murder  case*  Harder  unfortunately 
is  not  rare  ia  these  regions,  and  Tree  River,  peaceful 
as  it  seemed,  had  a  year  or  so  before  been  the  scene 
of  dramatic  events. 

Five  people  had  been  murdered  near  Kent  Pto~ 
insula,  the  original  cause  of  the  troabte  being  that  ooc 
of  the  attacking  party  wanted  to  steal  another's  wife, 
who,  however,  was  killed  in  the  struggle,  together 
with  her  husband,  the  defenders  making  so  stout  a 
resistance,  that  the  assailants  found  themselves  at 
the  finish  fighting  for  their  lives.  Among  them  were 
two  young  men  one  Alekamiaq,  only  16  or  17  years 
old,  the  other,  Tataxnerana,  but  little  older.  They 
were  captured  by  the  poKce,  but  Alekamiaq  maa- 
aged  to  shoot  the  corporal  who  arrested  him,  together 
with  a  trader  living  near*  Before  he  ooold  escape 
however,  two  sledges  from  a  ne^boriog  settfexraat 
came  up;  and  he  was  taken  cfi  at  oooe  to  Herscfad 
Island,  the  chief  poHoe  post  of  the  district.  Here 
bft  fll^  TaJ^mProira  Vh?i*A  far  A  rvwpte  nf  yrara,  ngtiflg 
as  a  kind  of  servants  to  the  poBoe,  wbfle  they 
waiting  to  be  tried.  They  were  allowed  to 
about  taJy  mmmg  Hie  other  native  and  the  wtate 
mm;  no  oae  felt  any  fear  of  them;  tliey  were  indeed 
rather  Kked  in  the  place. 

It  was  a  teogthy  aad  diffictilt  bosbiess  to  get  the 
twommxierersfaaaged.    Jodges,  adrocates,  aod  wifc- 
to  be  brought  from  a  kxig  dfetaace.    The 


mttnler  of  the  two  wfaite  mm  took  place  HI  1939  MM! 


280  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

it  was  not  until  last  winter — in  February  if  I  remem- 
ber rightly — that  the  murderers  were  hanged, 

The  trial  with  its  ceremonial  made  no  great  im- 
pression on  them;  they  seemed  to  have  aa  easy 
conscience  in  the  matter.  Both  men  were  con- 
demned to  death;  but  the  sentence  had  first  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  supreme  authority  in  Canada.  At 
last  one  evening,  when  they  were  busy  making 
salmon  nets,  they  were  informed  that  they  were  to  be 
hanged  at  three  the  next  morning.  Young  Aleka- 
miaq  received  the  information  with  a  smile;  Tata- 
merana  asked  huskily  for  a  glass  of  water,  but  as 
soon  as  he  had  drunk  it  he  was  himself  again,  and 
ready  to  meet  his  fate.  Just  before  going  to  execu- 
tion, they  gave  the  Police  Inspector's  wife  some  little 
carvings  of  walrtis  tusk,  as  souvenirs,  to  show  they 
bore  no  ill  will  against  the  police.  Both  met  their 
death  calmly  and  without  sign  of  fear, 

I  was  informed  that  this  execution  had  cost  Canada 
something  like  $100,000;  among  other  expensive 
items  being  the  cost  of  the  executioner,  who  had 
to  be  brought  up  and  kept  there  all  the  winter,  as 
none  of  the  Police  themselves  would  have  any  hand 
in  this  part  of  the  work, 

Qae  erf  the  two  criminals  had  an  old  father  living  at 
Keat  P^iiBtila,  who,  learning  that  his  son  was  to  be 
sestt  to  the  etersal  hunting  grotmds,  decided  tliat  he 
could  mot  let  form  go  alone.  And  after  three  at- 
ternpte,  fee  managed  to  loll  hhnself ,  fulfilling  what 
he  ceBceived  to  be  biadpty  to  his 


O 


CHAPTER  XXI 

AMONG  TSE  BLOND  ESKIMOS 

N  the  28th  of  January  we  left  our  kindly  hosts  at 
Tree  River  and  crossed  over  Coronation  GuJf 
to  Cape  Krusenstern.    The  wind  was  Eke  cold  steel, 
and  the  snow  drove  right  in  our  faces.    It  is  costly 
travelling  cm  a  day  Eke  this,  as  one  cannot  avoid 
getting  frost  sores  in  the  face,  and  these  are  a  eon- 
stant  source  of  trouble  and  annoyance  throughout  the 
rest  of  the  winter.    We  reached  Cape  Krusenstera 
on  the  30th  after  a  struggle  with  pressure  ridges 
and  fantastic  barriers  of  joe,  through  all  of  which  to 
our  sorptrise,  the  Joe  ehoeing  hdd.    The  natives  here 
came  literally  tmnhfeag  ovw  «a,  ia  the  meet  un- 
ceremonious fashion;  some  of  them  scrambled  op  on 
to  our  sledges,  and  I  was  amused  to  see  them  sitting 
there  wtth  their  harpoons,  looking  Hk»  halberdiers 
on  guard.    They  somehow  got  the  idea  that  Leo 
Hansaa  was  a  very  great  personage  whom  we  were 
escorting  into  the  white  men's  country,  and  as  wt> 
approached  their  village,  the  ones  who  had  met  vA 
fo&  shotted  out  witboat  the  least  iwserws  the  aaorti 

a^iiigiiii,^^ 

to  ^»*^'«ilA^to*|*.li*  OPT  nett  dhftwidbttlNr 
hadfouod.  Tb^raastbeKraisibi^Ta^add.!*- 
they  did  not  «pp«r  to  be  «U*9f  twdw  «r  po»ee! 


282  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

It  never  seemed  to  occur  to  them  that  we  could 
understand  what  they  said,  and  they  commented 
frankly  on  my  big  nose  and  Anaruluuguaq's  fat 
cheeks.  Our  dresses,  appearance  and  equipment 
were  criticized  in  like  fashion,  exactly  as  if  we  were  a 
traveJling  circus  making  entry  into  some  village 
miles  from  anywhere. 

I  stood  it  for  a  while,  and  then  gave  them,  briefly 
but  pithily,  my  own  opinion  of  their  manners,  appear- 
ance and  order  of  intelligence,  more  particularly 
their  simplicity  in  taking  it  for  granted  that  we 
could  not  understand  them.  There  was  a  moment  of 
dead  siience  when  I  had  finished;  all  stared  at  us 
with  eyes  and  mouths  agape,  then  gave  vent  to  a 
how!  of  laughter*  They  were  not  accustomed  to 
meeting  wMte  men  who  understood  their  language* 
But  the  mistake  kft  no  ill-feeling;  on  the  contrary, 
we  were  friends  at  once.  We  stayed  here  a  day, 
and  I  went  through  my  regular  list  of  questions, 
which,  from  long  practice,  enabled  me  to  get  quite  a 
lot  of  information,  while  Leo  Hansen  was  busy  with 
his  pictures. 

On  the  ist  of  February  we  arrived  at  Bernhard 
Harbour,  where  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  has  a 
station.  Their  representative  here  proved  to  be  a 
fdlow-ootmtryman  of  mine,  Peder  Pedersea,  of 
Loegstoer,  irfao  had  left  Dfmnark  42  years  before 
and  spent  about  a  generation  in  the  Arctic*  Hie 
received  us  with  the  greatest  cordiality,  and  though 
he  spofoe  Daiaisli  with  some  hesitafckm  at  fest,  it  was 
not  long  before  it  all  came  back  to  fo**n. 

We  were  now  anxious  to  get  ttirottgli  to  the 


OUR  HOST,  QANIGAG,  A  TYPICAL  SPECIMEN  OF  THE    "  BLOND  "    ESKIMO  OF   THESE 

REGIONS 


AMONG  THE  BLOND  ESKIMOS       283 

Mackenzie  Delta  without  delay,  and  therefore  put 
in  a  couple  of  days  here  getting  a  teat  made;  a  double 
tent  which  we  could  easily  warm.  Single  teats  are 
useless  in  extreme  cold*  as  a  layer  of  nine  forms  on  the 
inside  aiad  lets  loose  a  shower  of  froet  as  soon  as  the 
canvas  is  touched. 

Berc^  Harbor  was  at  one  time  the  headquarters 
of  the  Canadian  Arctic  Expedition  under  the  capable 
leadership  of  Dr.  Martin  Anderson.  I  could  there- 
fore with  an  easy  cooscieaice  deal  summarily  with 
this  district,  as  etlmogmphical  studies  had  already 
been  systematically  carried  out  by  my  predecessors, 
I  contented  myself  therefore  with  going  through  the 
af  ore-meatianed  list  of  questions,  which  gave  me  all  I 
Beaded  for  comparison  with  my  notes  from  elsewhere  . 
We  then  hurried  out  to  a  big  hunting  camp  near 
Stitton  and  Ustaa  Island,  which  the  Eskimos  call 
Ukafcdfifc,  in  Dobbin  and  Union  Strait,  I  stayed 
here  a  week  aaad  broogfrt  my  jemraafa  op  to  date, 

The  Eskimos  <rf  timm  rcgioas,  Etoe  tin**  farther 
east,  have  BO  regular  cfaiefe,  but  each  ^MteiBffsBt  has 
one  man  who  acts  as  a  sort  of  general  adviser  aad 
leader  in  oommoii  m¥^eriatdiigs.  The  leading  man 
here  was  TVp^V^fa^!  who,  with  his  jovial  wife 
IBkilaq,  is  described  at  length  in  Diamond  Jeoaess' 
excefleat  wodk  Tkt  Lift  of  tht  Copper  Estem&s. 

The  ^^^»^^^it  ooeoasted  of  twenty  large  sad 
roooiy  sacw  httfcs,  and  was  brah  near  a  smaD  idand 

fwbeQO^ 


popolatioo  for  ore  viDage  in  tibese  regioaa    M<«i  of 


284          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

tibem  were  from  Victoria  Land  where  they  had  lived 
until  recently  under  the  name  of  Pmvdlermiut,  but 
owing  to  the  gradual  thinning  out  of  the  game  IB 
those  parts,  they  had  moved  across  to  the  mainland, 
hunting  the  territory  between  Great  Bear  Lake  and 
the  coast  north  of  Stapylton  Bay.  My  actual  hosts 
belonged  to  this  contingent;  but  there  were  also 
representatives  of  the  original  mainland  tribes,  and 
others  again  from  Prince  Albert  Sound  and  Minto 
Inlet,  so  that  I  had  here  an  excellent  opportunity  of 
collecting  information  from  a  considerable  area  at 
one  spot,  and  was  saved  the  necessity  of  visiting 
Prince  Albert  Sound* 

The  camp  here,  at  Dolphin  and  Union  Strait, 
matte  the  boundary  of  the  so-called  eastern  IMamoe, 
the  wiiole  range  of  country  between  Inman  River 
and  Baillie  Island  being  inhabited  only  by  trappers 
or  immigrant  Eskimos  from  Alaska.  At  Baillie 
Island  we  have  the  beginning  of  an  entirely  new 
Eskimo  culture,  closely  associated  with  hunting  try- 
sea,  and  consequently  superior  in  material  respects, 
while  the  natives  to  the  eastward  are  still  only  in  the 
initial  stages  of  development  to  the  coastal  form,  and 
are  in  fact  very  neaiiy  allied  to  the  Caribou  Eskinios. 

Nearly  all  movement  among  the  Eskimos  of  the 
Norffariresfc  Piassage  seems  as  far  as  tradition  serves, 
to  have  run  in  aa  easterly  directiiHi,  aaad  occasionally 
by  certain  de^te  routes  to  the  sotithward,  where  the 
dlffiermt  tribes  exchanged  needful  commodities. 


,aB^a^ 
try  OQ  the  west  was  that  it  were  said  to  be  inhabited. 


AMONG  THE  BWND  ESKIMOS       285 

The  whole  of  the  area  here  described  had  a  special 
source  of  wealth  in  the  deposits  of  pure  copper,  which 
are  found  at  Bathurst  Inlet  and  in  parts  of  Victoria 
Land,  especially  Prince  Albert  Sound.  This  copper 
was  used  for  making  knives,  ice-picks  and  harpoon* 
heads,  which  were  of  great  value  when  trading  with 
other  tribes.  Diamond  Jenness  has  therefore  rightly 
grouped  aH  these  tribes  raider  the  name  of  Copper 
Eskimos. 

These  are  the  same  people  who  suddenly  sprang 
into  fame  some  years  back  as  the  "blood  Edcm»«/f 
They  were  discovered  in  1905  by  a  Dairish  adventurer 
named  Kliakenberg,  who,  setting  out  from  Herschel 
Island  in  a  small  schooner,  was  driven  out  of  his 
course  and  landed  at  a  spot  which  later  proved  to  be 
Minto  Inlet  On  his  return,  he  told  of  a  strange 
people  he  had  met,  who  spoke  the  Eskimo  tongue 
and  lm*i  ill  Ike  B&a00  fes&iaa*  but  in 


looked  exactly  Hire  Scaodimviaos.  IHinfowheqfs 
report  ted  Vilhjalmur  Stefansscm,  with  the  zoologist 
Dr.  Martin  AndemHi,  to  Q&m&m&w*m$i0$s$^ 
lasting  from  1908-12,  and  described  w  Im  took 
My  Life  wiA  tke  Eskimos. 
In  the  year  1910  Stefansson  had 


at  Langton  Bay,  and  fcnavdBed  esisfcwaid,  aooorn- 


nathres  near  Cape  Bodcy.    And  here  a  corioos  thing 
"Hue  peqpie  bwe  took  him  for  an  Eddmo 


himself,  because  he  spoke  the  Eskimo  toogoc,  alto- 
gether heedle^  c€  feas  appaanoce,  wfakfe  of  ooorac 


284          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 


were  from  Victoria  Land  where  they  Imd  lived 
until  recently  tinder  the  name  of  Piaivdlermiut,  but 
owing  to  the  gradual  thinning  out  of  the  game  in 
those  parts,  they  had  moved  across  to  the  mainland, 
hunting  the  territory  between  Great  Bear  Lake  and 
the  coast  north  of  Stapylton  Bay*  My  actual  hosts 
bekmged  to  this  contingent;  but  there  were  also 
representatives  of  the  original  mainland  tribes^  and 
others  again  from  Prince  Albert  Sound  and  Minto 
Inlet,  so  that  I  had  here  an  excellent  opportunity  of 
collecting  inf  ormation  from  a  considerable  area  at 
one  spot,  and  was  saved  the  necessity  of  visiting 
Prince  Albert  Sound. 

The  camp  here,  at  Dolphin  and  Union  Strait, 
marks  the  boundary  of  the  so-called  eastern  Eskimos, 
the  whole  range  of  country  between  Inman  River 
and  Baillie  Island  being  inhabited  only  by  trappers 
or  immigrant  Eskimos  from  Alaska.  At  Baillie 
Island  we  have  the  beginning  of  an  entirely  new 
Eskimo  culture,  closely  associated  with  hunting  by 
sea,  and  consequently  superior  in  material  respects, 
while  the  natives  to  the  eastward  are  still  only  in  tibe 
initial  stages  of  development  to  the  coastal  form,  and 
are  in  fact  very  nearly  allied  to  the  Caribou  Eskimos, 

Nearly  all  movement  among  the  Eskimos  of  the 
Passage  seems  as  far  as  tradition  serves, 
an  easterly  direction,  and  occadbnally 
de&ri^  where  the 

dififeoeot  tribes  exchanged  needful  commodities. 
fh«e  is  no  teoocd  ofiany  jottnie^  to  iisew^fc,  toward 


try  on  tiie  west  was  that  it  were  said  to  be  inhabited. 


AMONG  THE  BLOND  ESKIMOS       285 

The  whole  of  the  area  here  described  had  a  special 
source  of  wealth  in  the  deposits  of  pure  copper,  which 
are  found  at  Bathttrst  Inlet  and  m  parts  of  Victoria 
Land,  especially  Prioee  Albert  Sound*  This  copper 
was  used  for  making  knms,  ice-picks  and  harpoon- 
heads,  which  were  of  great  value  when  trading  with 
other  tribes,  Diamood  Jenness  has  therefore  rightly 
grouped  all  these  tribes  tmdar  the  name  o£  Copper 
Eskimos. 

These  are  the  same  people  who  suddenly  sprang 
into  fame  some  years  back  as  the  "blond  Eskimos/' 
They  were  discovered  in  1905  by  a  Danish  adventurer 
named  Klinkenberg,  who,  setting  out  from  Herschel 
Maud  in  a  small  schooner,  was  driven  out  of  his 
course  and  laaded  at  a  spot  which  later  proved  to  be 
Minto  Met.  On  his  retttra,  he  told  of  a  strange 
people  he  had  met,  who  spoke  the  Eskimo  tongue 
and  lived  in  the  Eskiino  fashion,  but  in  appearance 
looked  exactly  like  Scandinavians. 


report  ted  Yilhjalmur  Stefansstm,  with  the  zoologist 
Dr.  Martin  Anderses,  to  set  out  on  a  new  eoqpeditksi, 
lasting  ftom  1908-12,  and  described  in  his  book 
My  Ufe  wiA  ike  Eskimos. 

la  the  year  1910  Stefansson  had  his  headquarters 
at  Langton  Bay,  and  travefted  easfeward, 


natives  Bear  Cape  Bexley  .    And  here  a  curknas  thing 
The  pec^e  here  todk  him  £OT  ail 


because  he  spoke  the  Eskimo  fomgfftfi,  alto- 
heedless  of  has  aj^aaraBce,  wbkh  of  oomrae 
wsstbatof  awiuteraaa,    Whea  be  asioed  them  bow 

^ 


286  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Eskimo  they  answered  that  he  did  not  look 
smeh  different  from  some  of  the  Eskimosof  Victoria 
Land  where  it  was  very  common  to  find  people  with 
grey  eyes  and  fair  hair  and  beard.  Stefansson  then 
at  once  determined  to  visit  a  particular  spot  indi- 
cated, and  his  observations  led  him,  to  fonntdate  a 
theory  that  some  of  those  Norsemen  who  had  been 
last  heaixl  of  in  Greenland  might  possibly  have  made 
their  way  to  these  regions,  and  intermarried  with  the 
Eskimos  there. 

I  admit  that  we  do  find,  among  the  Copper 
Eskimos  as  well  as  among  those  farther  east  towards 
King  William's  Land,  a  surprisingly  large  ntmiber  of 
types  differing  in  appearance  from  the  ordinary 
Eskimo;  this  however,  is  hardly  sufficient  to  support 
a  hypothesis  which  claims  them  as  descendants  of 
Norsemen  from  Greenland.  Stefansson  suggests 
that  the  distance  from  Greenland  to  Victoria  Land 
is  no  hindrance.  To  this  I  cannot  agree*  The 
ancient  Norsemen  were  great  sailors,  and  did  get  far 
to  the  north  with  their  vessels,  but  they  were  iiaardly 
well  enough  up  in  sledge  travelling  for  SIK&  a  jotimey* 
The  last  certain  record  of  tibeir  movements  to  the 
southward  is  the  runic  inscription  at  Upernivik* 
And  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  methods 
of  teaveOing  in  the  Arctic,  the  distance  between 
Graeofai^ 

obstacle,    DisteiK^isafto 

facilities;  and  the  fate  of  tlie  Franklin  Expedition 
and  the  many  which  followed  it  afford  the  best 
proof  of  how  impossible  It  would  have  been  lor  the 
Norsemen  to  navigate  in  these  regions.  And  finally, 


1 


-2 

»"  fc 

t  •£ 

!s  c 

>.  ^ 


c  - 

ii 


•=  E 


if 


ii 


+    u 

18* 

g-8 


AMONG  THE  BWND  ESKIMOS 

if  any  did  come,  it  must  have  been  more  than  ft 
single  vessel  or  so  driven  out  of  its  course;  it  would 
require  an  extensive  systematic  immigration  to  set 
and  leave  its  mark  upon  the  native  population  so  as 
to  endure  through  all  these  years. 

Moreover,  we  have  to  consider  the  evidence  of 
tradition.  It  is  hardly  imaginable  that  such  an  event 
should  have  been  utterly  forgotten  among  the 
natives  themselves,  even  after  the  lapse  of  a  thou- 
sand years.  There  are  many  stories  stul  current 
among  the  Eskimos  in  Greenland  as  to  the  Norse- 
men  and  their  conflicts  with  the  natives.  The  blond 
type  is  not  peculiar  to  Victoria  Land,  but  is  found 
also  in  King  William's  Land  and  on  the  Great  Fish 
River;  even  among  the  Musk  Ox  Eskimo  I  found 
some  with  the  same  reddish  or  brownish  hair  and 
grey  or  almost  bfoe  eyes,  and  a  remarkably  strong 
beard,  which  bet  m  wrasoal  among  the  Eskimos 
generally.  And  these  was  no  tradition  nnoog  any 
of  these  peopfe  ^  to  any  foreign  Wood,  laxnoctfi- 
vinced  that  these  peculiar  types  are  the  result  erf 
purely  biological  conditions,  winch  are  altogether 
accidental,  and  for  which  no  role  can  be  cstahfahrd. 

On  the  isth  of  February  we  bade  farewell  to  our 
friends  here.  There  had  been  exeefleot  sealing  for 
the  past  month,  the  finest  indeed  we  had  seen,  a 
single  day  sufficing  for  the  capture  of  as  many  seals 
as  wonld  have  been  taken  in  a  whole  month  among 
theNete*fe««fattotfaeeastwanl  It  was  at*  that 
the  natrrea  bare  wenst  mow  Own  ctwaoaanry 
bat  the  wab^  hew  fe  Do^^ 


288  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

a  general  meeting  place  tor  the  seals  both  from 
east  and  west. 

With  heavy-laden  sledges  we  set  out  on  the  900  km. 
run  to  Baillie  Maud. 

We  had  met  at  Bernhard  Harbor  a  young  trapper 
named  Lyrrmn  de  Steffany,  and  afterwards  his 
brother  Gtas,  who  lived  some  distance  further  west, 
Both  were  excellent  hunters  and  drivers,  and  we  were 
glad  of  their  assistance.  Leo  Hansen  had  hurt  his 
shoulder  in  struggling  with  the  heavy  Hudson  Bay 
sledge,  and  one  arm  was  useless  for  some  time;  indeed 
it  was  only  by  a  stubborn  effort  that  he  was  able  to  go 
on.  The  aid  afforded  us  by  the  two  brothers  on  tie 
journey  was  thus  doubly  welcome,  and  the  fortnight 
we  spent  travelling  in  their  company  was  one  of 
pleasant  companionship  tibucoughout. 

The  coast  we  had  now  to  follow  to  the  tKHl&wazd 
was  for  the  most  part  dull  and  monotonous;  it  was 
low-lying  country,  in  many  places  merging  impeseept- 
ibly  into  the  tumbled  ice  and  pressure  ridges  off  tbe 
shore,  and  only  broken  here  and  there  by  steep  sand- 
stone rocks  often  hollowed  iato  fantastic  caves  tliat 
afforded  a  welcome  shelter.  The  ice  off  shore  was 
good,  and  when  we  wanted  fresh  ptovisians  we  had 
as  a  nrfe  only  to  drive  out  some  ten  Mlorsetiies  where 
seal  could  be  had  without  difficulty  in  the  patches  erf 
open  -water.  We  were  loth  to  waste  time  on  such 
€3@cttrs3O€is  however,  and  only  turned  aside  when 


forced  to  it,  At  die  place  we  eocjomite^ed  a  soitery 
Swede,  Kalle  Lewm,  of  Kafonar,  who  qttoted 
Prithiof  s  Saga  with  true  patriotic  enthtjaasm,  in  the 
intervals  of  gloomy  prophesyiags  as  to  the  prospects 


AMONG  THE  BLOND  ESKIMOS       289 

of  fox  in  the  corning  season*  A  day's  journey  farther 
north,  at  Pierce  Point,  in  the  most  beautiful  part  of 
the  country,  ainid  arches  and  monuments  of  ice- 
embroidered  sandstone,  we  met  another  trapper 
named  Bezona,  said  to  be  an  Italian  nobleman  who 
had  come  to  the  Arctic  in  search  of  an  Eldorado  —  tip 
to  date  without  success. 

At  Cape  Lyon  we  enocnintered  the  first  Eskimo 
imxmgraaits  from  Alaska,  who,  Eke  the  white  trap- 
pers, were  now  seeking  their  fortune  in  the  ootmtry 
of  their  "wild"  tribal  kinsmen.  They  were  e*~ 
tremely  hospitable,  spoke  fluent  English,  and  soon 
proved  to  be  thoroughly  businesslike.  We  did  not 
take  long  to  discover  that  we  were  in  the  land  of  the 
Almighty  Dollar,  A  joint  of  caribou  meat  such  as 
would  have  been  given  us  freely  as  a  token  of  wdoorae 
aioo^thefaibesf 

we  wanted  a  mm  *rf  *  sfedge  to  hdp  as  one  day's 
journey  oa  ahead,  a*  "to  Eaoaen  was  sfcffl  laid  ttp, 
the  price  askad  for  this  was  $25. 

We  thought  ped&ps,  for  a  moment.  with  regret  of 
the  kiodly  folk  we  had  k&t  who  would  haw  helped 
us  on  our  way  for  a  week  and  been  oaly  too  pleased, 
witlKmtany  qiiestkniof  paym^  But  the  principle 
here  was  tnKjuestioiiably  ri^ 

to  ocHUpete  with  the  white  men,  aiid  if  they  were  to 
mate  cawfe  apeft,  it  was  neoessary  to  ask  a  fair  pay* 
loeat  for  Borvicee  reixieml  We  were  sfcraogiers, 
BKrety  psssiog  tfaro^i  tte  oouutry,  «wl  had  to 


put  OQ  the  pace,  doing  90  or  60  kflooieb^s  per 


290  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

day.  This  meant  that  the  dogs  had  to  trot,  and  we 
ourselves  to  run  beside  the  sledges,  which  was  per- 
spiring work,  but  gave  one  splendid  rest  at  night. 

On  the  9th  of  March  we  halted  for  a  spell  at  Cape 
Parry »  where  lived  the  trapper,  skipper  and  adven- 
turer Jim  Crowford.  We  got  in  to  his  place  in  the 
evening,  just  as  the  setting  sun  lit  tip  his  little 
schooner,  as  she  lay  icebound,  and  the  corrugated  iron 
hut  he  had  built  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff .  It  looked 
chilly  enough  in  itself,  but  there  was  smoke  rising 
from  the  chimney,  and  it  was  not  long  before  we 
were  seated  at  a  ineal  like  old  friends,  listening  to  our 
host's  account  of  his  adventures  in  the  gold  rush  of 
1900, 

On  ttie  xsth  of  March  we  reached  Horton  River, 
where  there  is  an  old  Eskimo  settlement  named 
Idgltdualuit;  the  widow  of  a  well-known  German 
whaler,  Captain  Fritz  Wolki,  Eves  here.  We  entered 
a  house  where  everything  was  so  neat  and  dean  and 
orderly  that  we  instinctively  walked  on  tiptoe,  and 
found  three  taciturn  women  who  regaled  us  with  roast 
ptarmigan — dainty  and  appetizing  as  could  be* 

Next  day  we  axxmntegred  a  natural  phenomenon, 
aad  camped  for  a  spell  to  take  some  pictures,  though 
Hf®  oodd  <jply  stay  a  few  hcmrs.  We  had  reached 
i&e  Stacking  Mooatains,  Long  ago,  perhaps  a  hun- 
dred years  or  more,  some  subt^raoean  deposit  of 
coal  feeane  caoght  fire,  and  the  smoke  is  still  pottring 
from  tea  ^Se^mfc  MHs*  In  the  strong  su 


they  seem  wrapped  in  kales  of  greyish  blue  sraoloe, 
that  oozes  out  from  every  crack  and  device  In  the 
sides.  Here  and  there  among  the  hollows,  white 


AMONG  THE  BLOND  ESKIMOS        291 

vapors  pour  forth  like  the  smoke  from  sacrificial 
fires,  carried  by  the  wind  over  to  the  mighty  barrier 
of  snowKxrrered  pressure  ridges  that  runs  along  the 
shore.  It  is  a  fight  between  fire  and  cold,  and  the 
cold  is  the  stronger*  Even  the  smoking  mountains 
themselves  are  covered  with  snow;  only  the  black 
sand  on  the  front  of  the  slopes,  wrapped  in  smoke, 
is  warm  and  moist.  Ahead  of  us  as  far  as  the  eye 
can  reach,  lay  the  frozen  sea,  glittering  in  the  sun- 
light, symttng  in  its  majesty  as  if  in  scorn  of  the  fire 
demons  and  their  vain  pyrotechnics  in  the  bawds  of 
the  earth. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

TRADE  AND  PROSPER 

the  1 7th  of  March  we  reached  Baillie  Islaad, 
where  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  has  a  sta- 
tion, in  charge  of  our  fellow-countryman  Henrik 
Henriksen.  I  need  hardly  say  that  he  at  once 
invited  us  to  share  his  comfortable  quarters. 

The  first  part  of  our  journey  was  thus  at  an  end. 
I  was  now  among  new  tribes,  the  Mackenzie  Eskimos. 

It  was  like  coming  into  new  country  altogether. 
We  had  been  accustomed  to  living  among  people 
who  lived  chiefly  on  land  game,  and  only  hunted 
seal  from  the  ice.  Here  we  found  ourselves  among 
folk  who  won  their  food  from  the  open  sea,  and  spoke 
a  language  which  was  almost  exactly  like  that  of  the 
Eskimos  in  Greenland;  they  talked  of  whale  and 
white  whale,  seal  and  ribbon  seal,  which  were  hunted 
in  kayaks  or  umiaks.  And  these  umiaks  were  ex- 
actly like  those  used  in  Greenland;  it  was  a  pleas- 
ure to  us  to  see  the  well-known  lines,  coming  as  we 
cfid  from  among  people  to  whom  the  very  name  of 
Greenland  was  unknown. 

The  Httle  white  snow  villages  that  we  had  grown  so 
familiar  with  were  here  replaced  by  log  huts,  or 
houses  built  of  wood  or  peat,  the  arrangement  en- 
tirely corresponding  to  that  common  in  Greenland, 
so  that  my  two  Greenlartders  opened  their  eyes  and 

292 


AXGUISINAOQ,  MY  STOIY-TELLER  FROM  BAILLIE  ISLAND 

One  of  the  old  school,  as  shown  by  the  labrets,  or  lip  ornaments,  which  he  still  wears.  The&e 
are  made  of  mammoth  tusk,  white  quartz,  nephrite,  granite  or  slate,  and  thrmt  through  a  hole 
in  the  lip.  In  farmer  time*,  they  were  worn  by  all  the  men  between  the  Mackenzie  River  and 
the  Yukon. 


TRADE  AND  PROSPER  293 

thought  they  were  nearly  home  again,  though  they 
had  now  for  three  years  been  moving  farther  aixi 
farther  from  their  own  country. 

This  was  our  first  impression,  but  on  closer  ac- 
quaintance we  found  things  very  different  from  what 
we  knew.  The  Mackenzie  River  had  been  the  great 
source  of  culture,  and  just  as  its  mighty  currents 
had  torn  up  whole  forests  by  the  root  and  spread 
the  timber  far  along  its  shores,  so  also  it  had  ton  tip 
the  Eskimo  culture  from  its  old  surrxnmdings  and 
created  a  transition  form*  in  the  midst  of  which  we 
found  ourselves  now.  Hunting  by  sea  was  no  longer 
the  one  thing  needful.  The  pursuit  of  gold  and 
money  values  had  revolutionized  everything*  The 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  no  looger  the  only 
source  and  ceatre  of  teade;  independent  traders  came 
down  the  livers  baying  up  skim  for  cash,  and  the 
between  tibem  ©eat  prices  tip  to  such  a 


degree  that  the  Eskimos  in  this  riftircotm  try  found 
themselves  wealthy  mea  all  of  a  sodden,  Aad  ac- 
customed as  they  were  to  reckon  from  hand  to 
mouth,  or  at  most  in  terms  erf  a  single  year's  supply 
of  food,  their  ideas  of  foresight  went  no  farther  than 
the  laying  by  of  a  store  of  meat  lor  the  winter;  they 
were  all  skilful  hunters,  and  it  was  easy  for  them 
to  procure,  and  dispose  of,  the  coveted  skim;  wbich 
they  did  without  any  consideration  for  the  fttttane  or 
their  old  age- 

Conseqtieatly,  we  found  ourselves  now  among  a 
people  highly  paid  and  independent  in  pec&w&XL 
The  price  of  a  white  fox  was  $30,  m&  n*my  owid 
be  caught  between  Norembea:  aad  Aprfl,  ia  addition 


294  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

to  the  other  sorts  of  fox,  and  other  fur-bearibg  ani- 
mals, The  Eskimo  hunters  were  no  poor  savages  in 
kayaks;  they  owned  schooners  and  called  one  an- 
other "Captain."  A  schooner  of  the  fiat-bottomed 
type  such  as  is  -used  in  the  deltas  of  great  rivers  could 
be  bought  for  $3000,  but  there  was  not  much 
occasion  to  use  it  after  all.  One  could  go  visiting 
up  and  down  the  coast  in  summer,  or  take  a  sort 
of  fashionable  holiday  "  yachting  "  after  the  fur 
season  was  over;  for  hunting  proper  they  used  the 
cheaper  and  handier  timiak,  or  whaleboats.  Most 
of  the  schooners  of  course  had  motor  power,  and 
machinery  in  general  was  used  as  far  as  possible, 
The  women,  whose  deft  fingers  had  been  wont  to 
compass  unaided  the  making  and  decorating  of 
clothes,  now  used  sewing  machines.  Men  and 
women  alike  had  learned  to  write;  and  the  men,  to 
be  in  the  fashion,  bought  typewriters,  though  their 
correspondence  was  hardly  enough  to  give  them 
any  great  practice  in  the  use  of  them.  Safety  razors 
were  in  general  use,  and  cameras  not  uncommon. 
The  old  blubber  lamps,  excellent  for  their  purpose, 
were  now  sold  to  tourists  as  curiosities  (price  $30), 
and  gasoKne  or  kerosene  lamps  were  used  instead. 

I  felt,  indeed,  something  of  aa  old  fossil  myself  at 
first,  among  all  these  smart  business  folk;  legend  and 
niytii  and  ancient  traditions  were  things  they  had 
feffc  far  behind*  Maay  a  time  during  those  Sfsfe 
few  weeks  did  I  think  wistfully  of  the  eastern  tribes, 
and  womea  stiE  had  scaiie  respect  for  tite 


wisdom  of  t&ear  forebears.    Hae,  if  I  wanted  folk 
taks,  I  found  myself  confronted  with  salesmanship; 


TRADE  AND  PROSPER  295 

demand  created  the  supply,  and  a  self-styled  special- 
ist in  folklore,  mythology  aad  local  information 
offered  his  services  confidently  at  $25  per  day.  He 
could  make  that  by  manual  labor;  why  should  he 
use  his  brains  for  less?  And  as  soon  as  it  was  noised 
abroad  that  we  were  interested  in  ethnographical 
specimens,  unblushiiag  "dealers"  grewup  in  a  twink- 
ling on  every  side,  asking  tip  to  $50  for  any  trifling 
ornament. 

I  felt  hopelessly  out  of  my  dement  in  all  this* 
But  fortunately,  all  this  outwaid  "dvilizatkm''  was 
but  skin-deep,  and  it  was  not  long  before  I  managed 
to  arouse  the  people  to  some  interest  in  their  own 
past.  I  talked  to  them  for  hoctra— few  of  charge — 
of  all  that  we  had  seen  and  learned  cm  our  journey 
hitherto,  of  their  kinsfolk  to  the  eastward  who  knew 
their  battery;  and  after  a  while,  awoke  some  response 
m  theansdves.  Indeed,  before  leaving  western  Can- 
ada,  I  b^  acqtart^ 

able  inf ormatkm  niywIL  Bat  tibk  wffl  be  set  oat 
in  another  place.  For  the  preaeoi,  we  must  oe*i- 
tintie  our  jottraey. 

We  held  straight  cm  our  cotrrae  towa*db  Horsdbei 
Island,  halting,  however,  at  any  settlements  by  the 
way  that  offered  anything  of  interest.  In  Lnnerpoci 
Bay,  tor  instance,  I  visited  m  first  rate  story-tefler 
named  Apagkaq,  He  began  by  scornful  criticism  of 
my  interest  in  such  an  tmremttaeratrre  oocopation; 
bet  wfaeo rl  prosiQsed  him  $50  lor  five  days'  wraic,  he 
feacfeurested  bio^ftf.  The  work  'unit  but 

'jKuiau    llfebttijiyfittA     *^^t&$$lbA  '  MUriMA*      «i  n»a  J^     fiM«h<^Ml^^uSL«i^LM«t^ta»     iJMi'ji*i      -  ^  — J*-      Ji~.-i 

IP  pqpn  wiwif  II**  «uaa  DtM^u%iiiig  <io  HOB  pt 


296          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

of  it  was  foigotten,  and  we  worked  as  brothers.  He 
was  unquestionably  a  magnificent  artist,  the  finest 
I  have  met  outside  East  Greenland.  He  came  orig- 
inally from  the  region  of  Noatak  River  and  Kotze- 
bue  Sound,  and  several  of  his  stories  bear  traces  of 
India*?  influence.  One  of  them,  "The  Wise  Raven" 
is  a  whole  creation  myth  in  itself,  and  bears  notable 
points  of  difference  as  compared  with  other  Eskimo 
versions.  I  filled  many  pages  with  Apagkaq's  stor- 
ies, and  when  we  parted  I  could  hardly  see  out  of 
my  eyes.  I  slept  on  my  sledge  most  of  the  first 
two  days  after.  Looking  back,  I  have  a  faint  misty 
remembrance  of  meeting  a  jolly  old  fellow  named 
Ularpat,  the  first  in  these  regions  to  catch  white 
whale  in  nets.  Dried  whale  meat  and  blubber  was 
served,  the  meat  was  a  trifle  mildewed,  and  when  this 
was  commented  on  apologetically,  I  answered  with 
a  Greenland  catchword  to  the  effect  that  mildew 
was  good  for  the  system.  Ularpat's  retort  stuck  IB 
my  mind.  "Yes,"  he  said  with  a  laugh,  "we  say 
the  same  thing  in  our  country;  probably  to  save  the 
trouble  of  washing  the  meat  dean.  Laziness  often 
makes  things  'good  for  you'  in  that  way." 

On  again  to  the  west.  We  decide  to  cut  across 
Liverpool  Bay  and  make  for  Nuvoraq  (Atkinson 
Point).  In  the  evening  we  reached  the  house  of  a 
hospitable  American,  Mr.  Williams,  where  we  also 
S3£t  the  is&aplain,  Mr.  Hester,  with  wbom  we  affcer- 
*a#d&  travelled  f  or  some  weeks ;  aa  ^earnest  and  tmtir- 
i&g  worker,  with  the  welfare  of  the  Eskimos  error 
al  heart.  He  had  formerly  been  working  over  m  Sie 
region  of  Q)iraiatid&  Gulf  t  but  had  beesa  oWgdA  to 


YOUNG  WOMAN  AND  CHILD  FXOM  BAILL1E  ISLAND 

In  the  great  days  of  the  whaling  industry,  Herschel  Island  WAI  A  favorite  winter  harbor,  and 
mixed  types  are  not  infrequent  among  the  Eskimo  of  the  Mackenzie  Delta, 


TRADE  AND  PROSPER  397 

move  in  nearer  to  civilization,  as  the  missionary  soci- 
ety which  sent  him  out  could  not  afford  to  keep  him 
so  far  afield.  Having  in  mind  the  sums  spent  on 
punishing  criminals  here  in  the  wilds,  it  seems  a  pity 
that  it  should  be  necessary  to  economize  in  a  field 
of  work  which  more  than  aH  else  helps  to  prercnt 
the  growth  of  criminal  tendencies. 

On  the  5th  of  April  we  visited  the  chief  Mangi- 
laluk,  whose  residence  might  weD  be  the  envy  of 
many  a  town-dwella:  dreaming  of  a  country  house, 
It  was  a  log  htit  built  of  very  heavy  timber,  the  prin- 
cipal apartment  measuring  7  metres  by  5>4,  and 
something  over  3  metres  high.  This,  however,  was 
eclipsed  by  another  house  of  the  same  type  where  we 
spent  the  night  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Macken- 
zie Rhrer,  where  the  living  room  was  7  x  10  naetres, 
aad  3>£  metres  high.  The  waHs  here  were  lined 
with  beaver  boand,  the  floor  covered  with  linoleum, 
aad  in  place  of  the  oJd-faahtorad  Eskimo  deeping 
bench  I  found  a  bedroom  with  two  iron  bedsteads, 
spring  mattresses  and  afl! 

During  the  past  few  days,  the  country  has  changed 
altogether;  the  soil  is  grassy,  and  all  the  ralteys 
thick  with  water  willows, 

At  Kitikarjtdt,  formerly  inhabited  by  some  800 
Eskimos,  and  famous  for  white  whale,  we  found  no 
Eskimos  at  aBT  but  only  the  manager  of  the  Hud* 
:^*s  Bay  Q>mpany  's  ste^  The 

manager,  Jclm  Graben,  was  remarkably  w&D 


On  te'MMl  4P»%i»  again  passed  the  hooge  of 
feDow  ootmfcrytoan,  Niek  Hofen,  <»  the  castera 


298  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

bank  of  the  Mackenzie  Delta.  Here  also  we  fotind 
the  site  of  a  former  Eskimo  village,  with  many  ruined 
houses  and  graves,  especially  graves  of  chiefs,  in 
which  the  property  of  the  deceased  had  been  in- 
terred with  the  corpse;  umiaks,  kayaks  and  sledges* 

We  were  now  anxious  to  get  on  to  a  place  where 
we  could  finish  off  our  work  in  Canada  before  enter- 
ing Alaska.  Herschel  Island  would  be  the  best  for 
this  purpose.  The  delta,  however,  is  difficult  coun- 
try to  travel  through  without  a  guide,  owing  to  the 
many  tributary  streams  all  looking  alike.  To  avoid 
losing  our  way  and  precious  time,  we  persuaded 
Niek  Holm  to  accompany  us  to  Herschel  Island, 
where  we  arrival  on  the  I7th  of  April. 

Herscfael  Island  has  an  excellent  natural  harbor, 
the  only  real  harbor  on  the  whole  range  between 
Teller  and  the  Arctic  coast;  it  was  first  discovered 
in  1848,  and  at  once  became  the  centre  of  the  whal- 
ing industry  from  Mackenzie  River  to  Baillie  Island 
and  even  farthest  east.  The  whaling  has  now  alto- 
gether ceased,  but  the  harbor  remains  as  a  ^mn 
centre  of  supply  for  the  east  arctic  districts,  which 
may  at  times  be  completely  blocked  by  ice. 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  has  for  many  years 
past  carried  on  trade  in  the  Mackenzie  Delta.  In 
farmer  times,  supplies  were  only  brought  down  by 
lim.  ,  The  f  cimation  of  the  many  new  statiog&s  to 
tbe  eastward  T  Ii0wever,  necessitated  direct 


ealioa  by  sea  from  Vancouver,  aad  these  voyages 
were  a^ccmpMied  with  great  skill,  often  with 
om  risk.    The  considerable  quantities  of  goods 
m  upon  a  coast  wfeere  the  inliaMtaate 


TRADE  AND  PKOSPER  299 

still  in  a  primitive  state  has  of  course  its  dangers, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  great  trading  cod* 
cera  has,  despite  its  mercantile  interests,  realized  its 
responsibility  as  the  most  powerful  organises*  in 
the  district.  Throughout  the  North-west  Passage  I 
invariably  found  the  tradans  on  the  best  of  terms  with 
the  Eskimos  near* 

There  are  wide  regions  where  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  is  the  only  link  between  the  native  popu- 
lation and  the  outer  worfet  The  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  stands  for  dvflizatkm,  aad  its  otttpoets 
in  these  desolate  lasds  represent  the  life  and  work  of 
mea  who  bear  the  white  man's  burden,  the  white 
man's  great  responsibility, 

At  the  headquarters  of  the  Mounted  Police  on 
Herschel  Island  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  In- 
spector Wood,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  police  admin- 
along  the  wboie  of  the  Arctic  coast;  a  keen 


aad  capable  mao,  fttBy  alive  toj&e  riifirattim  of 
mamtamnig  law  and  Older  thraqghooi  *  ootmtay 


Pole.    To  him  had  &Hm  tibe  task  of  haagiog  the 
two  poor  devils  from  Erat  Peninsula  the  Ftefa 
before,   and   there  were  servetal 
from  the  east  sfclfl  at  the  statkm,,  either  as 


OT  aoesrsed  of  ccmpt^  Wit- 

nesses wad  accused  alike  lived  on  tie  best  of  terms 
with  ite  pc&»  and  the  local  Eskimos*  and  sate  lor 

haw  beeaa  eojoying  «a 


.  ..'<...  _      .  ___  *_Jl_J.    JP*^  .  Jf    »*.,   jL^Jl^iyjf'liLAjL    »<....!.  IV  -------  l-.<toL 

woo  rmgnt  ttnaiv  unr  HBP  jtw  i*6y 


300          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

The  Mackenzie  Eskimos  were  once  a  great  people 
by  native  standards;  it  is  estimated  that  about  the 
middle  of  the  I9th  century  they  numbered  about 
2000,  of  which  about  half  lived  at  Kitigarssuit — 
various  epidemics,  however,  have  seriously  reduced 
the  population  since  then,  and  it  now  amounts  to 
only  some  400  souls.  Of  these  again  some  two 
hundred  are  recent  immigrants  from  Alaska,  more 
especially  from  the  region  of  Noatak  and  Colville 
River,  In  the  old  days  before  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  had  set  up  stations  in  the  delta  itself,  the 
regular  yearly  trading  trips  extended  up  the  Mac- 
kenzie River  as  far  as  Fort  McPherson,  or  at  times 
even  beyond,  and  though  one  can  now  purchase 
everything  needed  on  the  coast,  there  are  still  some 
families  that  go  up  to  the  Arctic  Red  River,  attracted 
by  the  rich  prospects  of  trapping  in  that  region,  and 
the  fine  salmon  fishery. 

These  inland  journeys  brought  them  from  very 
early  times  into  contact  with  the  Indians;  and  here 
for  the  first  time  throughout  the  expedition  I  learned 
that  cases  of  intermarriage  between  Indians  and 
Eskimos  had  formerly  been  common;  true,  it  was 
naaniage  by  capture,  but  both  Indians  and  Eskimos 
agree  as  to  its  having  tak;en  place,  I  have  often 
in  Hie  fc&egolijg  referred  to  the  Indians  in  the  terms 
mpAjt$  $*&  Eskimos  in  describing  them;  the  oM 
stories  In  partkular  represent  them  as  cruel,  blood- 
atad  ta^eadaCToas,  At  Single  Point,  I  met  a 
Indian  woman,  the  wife  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  Manager;  she  had  been  bom  m& 
broiigjit  i*p  among  the  Takudh  Indians.  She  ex- 


INSPECTOR  WOOD  OF  HERSCHEL  ISLAND,  CHIEF  OF  THE  ROYAL  CANADIAN  MOUNTED 
POLICE  IN  THE  NORTHWEST  TERRITORY 


TRADE  AND  PROSPER  301 

plained  that  there  had  always  been  a  great  deal  of 
intercourse  between  the  Eskimos  and  the  Indians, 
especially  before  the  trading  stations  were  estab- 
lished* Every  summer,  the  Eskimos  used  to  come 
up  to  Fort  MePhersoti  aad  camp  on  a  great  plain 
near  the  hill  where  the  Indians  had  their  teats. 
They  played  football  on  the  plain,  but  on  one  occa- 
sion, trouble  arose  owing  to  the  rough  and  unsports- 
manlike behavior  of  the  Eskimos;  the  Ty^i^in^  re- 
tired from  the  game  and  the  Eskimos  struck  cainp 
and  went  off  in  anger.  Next  year  they  came  again 
in  great  numbers,  ready  for  battle,  but  the  Indians, 
not  wishing  to  give  any  occasion  for  bloodshed, 
moved  into  the  bush  with  their  tents  and  loosed 
their  dogs.  These  dogs  were  very  fierce,  and  the 
Eskimos  wane  greatly  afraid  of  them*  My  inform- 
ant was  then  only  six  or  seven  years  old,  bat  she 
remembers  being  driven  in  with  her  little  oampftoioos 
farther  into  the  bash,  in  case  there  should  be  fight- 
ing. She  had  taken  an  axe  with  her,  hoprag  to  loll 
an  Eskimo  herself.  No  one  was  afraid,  for  soeh 
scenes  were  of  frequent  occurrence.  But  the  dogs, 
which  also  appeared  to  bate  the  Kdrirnos,  toept 
guard  so  well  that  nothing  came  of  the  attack.  The 
Eskimos  made  peace,  and  that  was  doubtless  the 
last  feud  between  the  two  peoples.  Now  they  are 
good  £rie0ds>  but  in  former  times,  "the  bodoas" 
wore  BOted  for  their  treacheanous  attack^  and  the 
feazsd  t|*e»B,  matt- 


breed  types,  erf  Edtb»  aoi  ladban  Wo^ 
This  account,  given  by  ac  Indian  nomaa,  is  inter- 


302  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

esting  as  showing  how  the  Indians  regard  the  Eski- 
mos; and  one  cannot  say  that  any  great  affection 
exists  between  them. 

Our  first  meeting  with  the  Western  Eskimos  thus 
took  place  at  the  dose  of  our  three  years'  explora- 
tion in  Canada,  jttst  before  we  left  the  country.  We 
found  a  people  that  had  changed  their  ways  in  most 
essential  respects.  Skin  boats  had  given  place  to 
schooners,  sealing  to  trapping  and  fur  trading  on 
modern  lines;  earth-and-stone  huts  lined  with  drift- 
wood were  now  replaced  by  something  approaching 
modern  bungalows  or  villas;  and  in  addition  to  all 
these  external  changes,  their  ancient  faith  had  given 
place  to  Christianity.  One  would  hardly  think  that 
all  these  changes  would  be  favorable  to  any  con- 
tinuance of  the  fellow-feeling  between  them  aod 
their  kinsfolk  to  the  eastward;  we  found,  however, 
that  racial  traditions  lived  on  unimpaired  in  their 
stories  and  legends.  I  wrote  down  over  a  hundred 
such,  and  found  a  surprising  number  of  old  acquaint- 
ances among  them,  both  from  eastern  Canada  and 
from  Greenland. 

The  journey  ifaough  these  sparsely  populated 
wastes  was  now  at  an  end,  and  our  route  benoefor- 
wsynd  lay  Hnwigii  richer  and  more  dvifized  regions. 
I  fe^wsr,  to  have  had  tbe  opportunity  of 

sluayiig  these  pe^le  before  they  had  quite 
®$  tfeeir  ancient  ways  of  life.    As  it  was,  I  Jiad 
afotmdajice  of  material,  aad  was  &ow  moire  tfaaa 
ercr  filled  with  adinirafeidai  f or  the  Eskimos  them- 


TRADE  AND  PROSPER  303 

1  cannot  leave  this  part  of  the  country  without 
saying  that  I  got  a  strong  impression  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Canadian  Government  evidences  its  fading 
of  responsibiKty  toward  the  Eskimos.  Admittedly 
the  supervision  is  difficult,  because  the  people  are 
scattered  far  along  inaccessible  shores.  Nothing 
can  be  done  without  great  expense* 

The  plan  of  allotting  reserrattons  to  the  Eekitaoe 
is  undoubtedly  the  only  right  one,  for  it  skidds  them 
somewhat  in  those  first  meetings  with  dvflizatioQ 
which  are  always  the  most  dangerous  for  a  primitive 
people. 

Yet  in  one  thing  I  believe  progress  is  still  in  order. 
Now  the  Gcnrermnent  has  all  of  its  contacts  with  the 
Eskimos  thixmgh  the  Mounted  Police.    With  all  the 
admiration  I  hold  for  the  Mounted,  for  the  way 
they  carry  out  aB  usttal  poHee  duties,  and  many 
otherc,Idooc£fedtiirt 
to  substitute  for  afl  «f  ftie  agaotte  ^ 
Some  educational  department  most  tie  t^MMi^ 
to  ded  with  tte  Eskimo  Then* 

can  be  no  step  back  to  the  Staoe  Age  for  any  people 
that  has  once  had  contact  with  the  white  mam. 
Canada  camiKrt 

this  odttcattonal  poiemafisni  that  fo****  dtooe  so  ^nt**^  in 
Greeabad  and  in  Alaska  to  fit  Hie  Eskimo  to  meet 
the  cw«ter  contacts  with  the  wfaite  man,  in  the 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

NEW  WAYS  FOR  THE  ESKIMO 

the  5th  of  May,  early  in  the  morning,  we 
entered  Alaska.  Near  Demarcation  Point  we 
passed  the  line  of  stakes  that  marks  the  frontier; 
we  were  in  the  land  of  which  so  many  adventurers 
had  dreamed. 

We  had  now  a  run  of  800  kilometres  along  this 
barren  coast  before  we  could  halt  for  any  length  of 
time;  the  land  is  now  flat  tundra,  stretching  away 
as  far  as  Point  Barrow  almost  in  a  straight  line, 
broken  only  here  and  there  by  small  indentations  of 
the  coastline.  Just  offshore  are  narrow  sandy  reefs, 
forming  the  so-called  lagoons,  where  we  find  fine 
smooth  ice  just  inside  the  barrier,  very  different  from 
the  tumbled  pressure  ridges  beyond.  The  dogs 
moved  at  a  steady  trot,  and  we  ourselves  were  grow- 
ipg  accustomed  to  trotting  alongside. 

The  Eskimos  are  scattered  about  in  little  encamp- 
raents  all  along  this  coast;  we  find,  too,  a  few  white 

for  the  most  part,  some  with 


small  sctoooers,,  others  with  nothing  but  their  bare 
liands  asd  tiiek  tipps.  The  distance  between  dwell- 
ings depends  on  the  chances  of  a  good  haul. 

At  last,  on  the  23rd  of  May,  we  fottnd  ourselves  o& 
ttie  high  road,  as  it  might  well  be  called,  to  Point 
Barrow,  the  most  northerly  settlement  in  America. 

304 


WOMAN  FROM  POINT  BARROW 


NEW  WAYS  POR  THE  ESKIMO       305 

This  was  our  first  real  town  since  leaving  Godthaab 
in  Greenland,  in  1921*  Our  arrival  aroused  quite  a 
sensation  among  the  inhabitants,  when  it  was 
known  that  we  had  come  from  so  far  east;  all  had 
sufficient  book  learning  to  form  some  idea  of  the 
distance  involved.  Consequently,  I  was  invited  to 
give  a  lecture  on  Greenland  and  the  other  countries 
we  had  passed  through,  which  I  did,  in  the  local 
school  house,  on  the  following  day.  My  Greenland 
accent  and  idiom  occasioned  no  difficulty  aiooag  the 
natives  here;  a  fact  which  promised  well  for  future 
woric 

The  population  consists  of  some  250  natives  and 
a  few  white  men.  There  are  big  shops  with  stores 
and  warehouses,  but  what  mostly  struck  us  is  the 
presence  of  a  school,  a  hospital  and  a  church*  We 
had  not  seen  a  school  for  throe  years,  and  it  looked 
quite  imposing.  *Ffae  sKfaoofanaster  in  charge  was  & 
young  DtEtekiBan,  Pteter  «$a  &if  Sfeene,  who 
hospitably  received  us  as 

I  had  not  expected  to  find 


this  part  <rf  my  jooroey,  and  really  considered  my 
collections  at  aa  eod  on  feavbg  Canada;  I  soon 
fottnd^ho'wevOT.thattte  Men  and 

women  here  w^  less  Q^^ 

Mackenzie  Delta,  and  there  was  a  store  of  folklore 
aaad  niytbofogy  ready  to  hand.  I  decided  there- 
t  advantage  of  the  opportunity  f  aad 


tM^$^4MVi»  the  advioe  ol  «perte  who 

JL        ^         A  -^      -."•'  -.  -'  ^M»  ••  vWfffiii&Aayl^"Tfit''tf  iffr.-ttf-1-'-^^^*'"  I'laitgafiitM  w  j^^Mk    rifri(ffit>v  '  HM^^  f  *a^btt  ^  ^       lyWrW, 

nave  TO  tnas  iBHw  «i^gll8l-  fSnli-  go  «•»  oy  «a»»    we 
msre  jtist  at  the  tnoet  eifici^e  {Mit  of  the 


306          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

whaling  season.  Only  a  few  kilometres  out 
land  was  the  open  sea,  rocking  the  loose  icefloes; 
the  sea  birds  had  gathered  in  dense  fiocks*  and 
their  cries  could  be  heard  right  up  over  the  land- 
Nearly  all  the  men  lived  out  at  the  edge  of  the  ice 
in  rough  hunting  camps;  only  the  women  and  chil- 
dren were  at  home.  All  were  excited,  and  no  one 
ever  seemed  to  go  to  sleep.  When  we  ourselves 
went  to  rest,  at  four  in  the  morning,  and  opened  the 
windows,  we  heard  on  all  sides  the  chatter  of  women, 
the  cries  of  children  and  the  howling  of  dogs.  But 
on  all  the  highest  points  of  the  clay  cliffs  were  watch- 
ful outposts,  waiting  for  the  moment  when  they  cot&l 
with  a  deafening  shout,  announce  to  these  cashless 
night-birds  that  a  whale  had  been  harpooned. 

Alaska  was  discovered  in  1741  by  the  Danish  ex- 
plorer Vitus  Bering,  then  in  the  service  of  Russia 
and  voyaging  up  through  the  Strait  which  beass 
his  name.  Little  more  was  known  of  it 
for  many  years  after*  In  1826,  an  English 
tkm  tinder  Beediy  visited  Point  Barrow  aad  opened 
the  way  for  others-  The  Eskimos  who  lived  between 
Norton  Sound  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  appear  to  Jiarc 
been  a  warlike  people,  their  young  men  being  negiir 
laiiy  trained  for  war,  hardening  themselves  by  all 
manner  of  athletic  exercises,  dieting  themselves, 
and  often  obliged  to  fast  in  order  to  habituate  them- 
selves to  great  hardships,  or  tnalring  journeys  cm 
foot  for  many  days  in  succession  as  a  test  of  endtir- 
anee.  iNofc  only  were  the  different  tribes  con- 
stantly at  feud  among  themselves;  they  did  not  hes- 
itate to  aater  upon  combats  with  Indians  or  while 


a   __. 


2 


Si 


a 


M 

i : 

3  § 


i 


NEW  WAYS  FOR  THE  ESKIMO       307 

men  when  these  ventured  into  their  territory.  Fight- 
ing  was  carried  on  as  a  rale  with  bow  and  arrow,  but 
they  had  also  special  inventions  of  their  own;  among 
the  most  notable  were  breastplates  of  walrus  tusk, 
proof  against  arrows,  or  great  saw-toothed  dubs 
designed  to  crash  the  skull  of  an  enemy. 

This  period,  moreover,  was  not  so  far  distant  tat 
that  I  was  able  to  obtain  my  information  from  the 
elders,  men  and  women,  whose  fathers  had  them- 
selves taken  part  in  such  fights.  Russian  trading 
methods  proved  of  little  advantage  to  the  natives; 
indeed,  they  were  well  on  the  way  to  extermination 
when  the  United  States,  in  1867,  bought  the  whole 
territory  for  a  sum  of  $7,200,000;  probably  the 
best  deal  of  its  kind  on  record.  In  1890,  the  Bureau 
of  Education  set  to  work  to  improve  the  conditions 
of  the  native  population,  and  now,  after  35  years, 
we  find  them  indtEtrioos,  ambifeioas  and  indepead- 
ent,  a  wonderful  testimony  to  the  vah>e  of  eystematic 
educational  methods.  A  point  «f  great  importance 
in  material  respects  was  the  introduction  of  tame 
reindeer  from  Siberia.  Dr.  Jackson,  the  Alaskan 
Eskimos'  greatest  benefactor,  gnppBBdbdl  in  getting 
some  1280  animals  brought  ewer,  and  there  are 
now  dose  on  half  a  xoHfioci,  with  every  prospect  of 
'  mto ; 


AH  the  young  people  of  the  present  day  speak 
Bngfish  as  *reft  as  my  American,  and  have  thus  the 
first  qnatifinrtintt  for  entering  into  competaaca 

'      '  "•      '  .»• 


te  aie  fact  tiat  ibeednot  wm  fxom  tfae  &* 

made  the  centre  erf  errorytfring.     <^,"  ^>  "  '•-'' 


308          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

But  there  was  also  another  form  of  education 
which  was  of  importance,  and  that  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  so-called  co-operative  stores.  The 
population  contributed  themselves  towards  the  funds 
for  starting  these,  but  state  assistance  was  also 
needed,  and  the  government  vessels  which  inspect 
the  schools  and  medical  service  bring  up  goods  for 
a  freight  which  just  covers  expenses;  the  Eskimos 
thus  obtain  cheap  wares,  and  can  themselves  take 
jgart  in  determining  the  prices  of  all  necessaries, 
They  manage  these  businesses  themselves,  under 
supervision  of  the  two  local  school-teachers,  aad  it 
is  generally  considered  that  they  thus  gain  experi- 
ence greatly  conducive  to  the  development  of  their 
own  indepemleace. 

During  my  stay  at  Point  Barrow,  I  gained  a  lively 
impression  of  the  contact  between  the  native  popu- 
lation and  the  white  men,  who  had  come  into  tbe 
country  to  deal  with  cultural  tasks.  At  Hie  hospital, 
there  was  a  medical  missionary  in  charge,  a  Dr. 
Greist,  with  his  wife,  both  keenly  occupied  in  social 
work*  Mrs.  Greist  devoted  almost  the  whole  of  her 
to*  to  "The  Mothers*  and  Babies1  Club/'  the  prin- 
cipal objects  erf  which  were  hygiene  and  care  of  chil- 
dren. The  three  nurses  at  the  hospital  had  also  their 
special  tasks,  carrying  on  schools  in  their  Hssre 
^a$e  for  practical  sad  reJigiOds  ii*stracticai  especi&Jly 
far  *TOinra  ajid  cfeSdren,  And  through  the  comfort- 
able  school  rooms  passed  a  constant  stream  of  men 
mid  iiraiBaa,  W!K>  were  invariably  tecedved  by  Peter 
van  <ter  Sterre  infe-tfeei^ss  and 


I  teamed,  of  cottrse  later  on,  that  coalitions  a#e  not 


NEW  WAYS  FOR  THE  ESKIMO       309 

equally  ideal  everywhere;  the  great  difficulty  is  to 
get  the  right  kind  of  worioem  But  Point  Barrow 
at  least  was  a  place  where  ail,  £nom  the  youngest  to 
the  oldest,  woriced  sensibly  acconiiiig  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  I  was  glad  to 
obtain  the  best  iafetdtictira  here  at  once. 

Of  great  importance  to  me  and  my  wodk  at  Pbint 
Barrow  was  my  meeting  with  a  man  named  Charks 
Brewer,  who  had  lived  axmmg  the  Eekinws  for  forty 
years.  Mr*  Brower  was  a  personality  who  had  wi% 
lively  interest  followed  the  fate  of  the  Eskimos 
through  all  these  years,  and  very  thorou^bly  made 
himself  acquainted  with  their  past  history.  He  had 
married  a  native  woman  from  the  locality,  and  spoke 
the  Bdcmao  tongue  excellently.  He  was  rightly 
called  the  King  of  Point  Barrow;  for  there  is  haitlly 
a  maa  all  along  the  coast  who  enjoys  such  respect 
and  veneration  both  among  white  mea  aod  Eski- 
mos Mr.  Brower  and  I  aoon  made  frieads,  and 
thanks  to  his  advice,  I  was  able  at  ooce  to  hit  on  the 
spots  where  there  was  woik  to  be  done,  and  get  into 
touch  with  the  people  who  fcaew  what  I  wanted  to 
learn.  My  numeax>os  cooversatioGS  with  Mr.  Broww 
are  among  tbe  mo^t  pleasant  and  most  instructive 
I  have  ever  bad. 

In  Alask^  Bdtttral  ODddi£k>Q 


necessitated  a  devdopme&t  of  mdtistry  on  two  defin- 
ite lines:  the  caribou  htmters  on  tbe  one  haa4  the 
whalers  oa  the  other.  Htmtmg  by  saa  had  itedkfoa- 
ite  seasons,  predbading  any  very  BOcoadk;  fotm  of  tt&t, 
widb  the  immeaase  areas  tiax>^i  which  the  oaribod 
had  to  be  foOowed  on  tt^  other  haad  toade  it  iropoe- 


3io          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

sible  to  keep  to  the  coast  in  the  whaling  season 
Consequently,  some  of  the  natives  sailed  up  the  rivei$ 
and  settled  more  or  less  inland,  though  coming  down 
once  a  year  to  the  coast  for  sealskin  and  blubber, 
bringing  caribou  skin  and  furs  in  exchange. 

Point  Barrow  has  always  been  one  of  the  mak 
centres  for  the  Eskimo  whaling  industry.  The 
whales  begin  to  arrive  in  numbers  about  the  begin- 
ning of  April,  and  continue  to  come  in  until  the  first 
week  in  June;  the  whaling  was  carried  on  from  sfcki 
boats  out  at  the  edge  of  the  firm  winter  ice.  Dur- 
ing the  months  the  whaling  lasted,  all  the  men  lived 
uninterruptedly  out  at  the  edge  of  the  ice,  despite 
much  inconvenience  arising  from  the  tabu  system. 
Tents  were  forbidden,  and  they  had  therefore  to  be 
content  with  stann-sfaeiters  made  of  skins,  or  seek 
some  protection  from  the  elements  under  the  boat, 
It  was  also  forbidden  to  dry  clothes,  and  raw  food  was 
tabu;  all  meat  had  to  be  boiled.  Meantime,  tfee 
women  and  children  spent  an  anxious  time  up  ill  the 
winter  houses.  As  soon  as  a  whale  was  captured, 
they  drove  out  and  fetched  the  meat,  which  was 
stored  in  great  subterranean  larders,  dug  so  deep 
down  that  the  meat  remained  frozen  timnigjKmt  the 
summer. 

The  edge  of  the  ice  was  not  so  far  from  land  but 
that  it  was  easy  to  follow  the  progress  of  the  hiint- 
iag  from  or*  shore.  Tbe  *3ri*»  boats  and  their  crews 
were  posted  at  spots  where  the  dean  straight  Kn$  of 
the  ice-edge  was  indented  by  smaE  creeks  cut  fay 
the  storms.  The  whales,  following  the  maigm  of 
the  ke,  invariably  moved  tip  into  these  cseeks*  wfaws 


NEW  WA  YS  FOR  TOE  ESKIMO       311 

they  were  easily  harpooned.  The  harpoons  were 
pointed  with  slate  or  flint,  which  it  was  not  difficult 
to  thrust  through  the  thick  layer  of  blubber;  the 
harpoon  lines  were  as  a  rule  20-25  fathoms  long,  with 
three  bladder  floats,  ooeattheeadofthelineand 
two  others  tied  together  about  5  fathoms  from  the 
head  of  the  harpoon. 

Hie  tradition  of  many  generations,  and  yean  of 
practice,  had  given  steersmen  and  harpoaners  peat 
skill  in  calculating  the  mmnwwnte  «f  th»  •fontf  Afl 
the  boats  lay  on  the  ice  ready  to  be  tipped  off  at  a 
moment's  notice,  and  the  whale,  as  a  role,  passed 
so  dose  that  it  could  be  harpooned  from  the  ice 
itself.  At  the  same  moment,  all  the  boats  pot  out, 
scattering  over  several  kilometres  round,  and  wait- 
ing for  the  whale  to  come  up  again,  when  it  would 
be  given  a  few  more  harpoons,  with  lines  and  blad- 
der floats,  to  ding  along;  these  checked  its  pace, 
and  enabled  the  htmtesE  toTcome  to  done  quarters 
with  their  great  lances,  winch  wwe  thro*  in  at  a 
spot  where  the  flint  head  could  be  som  of  penetrat- 
ing. The  next  thrust  would  be  directed  towmda 
one  of  the  great  arteries  in  the  neck;  or  an  attempt 
would  be  made  to  sever  the  tail  fin;  the  whale  could 
then  no  longer  dhw,  and  was  easily  lolled. 

Only  occasionally  was  a  whale  attacked  in  open 
sea;  this  being  a  far  more  difficult  matter.  When  it 
Was  done,  the  hunters  could,  however,  reckon  with 
the  fact  that  a  whak  approached  from  the  front 
sees  badly  bothaus  faiify  weft,  wide  if  approacted 


312          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

both  see  and  hear  a  considerable  distance  off*  The 
first  time  a  whale  was  harpooned  it  would  come  up* 
some  3-4  kilometres  from  the  spot  where  it  went 
down;  but  as  the  boats  always  lay  spread  out  along 
the  edge  of  the  ice,  it  would  not  be  long  before  the 
lances  got  to  work  and  the  whale  was  despatched. 

With  these  primitive  implements  of  the  stone  age 
type,  the  hunters  could,  in  a  single  spring  season, 
account  for  up  to  22  whales  at  Point  Barrow  alone. 
Considering  what  this  means  in  meat  and  blubber  and 
hide,  it  is  not  hard  to  understand  that  in  this  dis- 
trict in  particular  there  was  the  possibility  of  a 
flourishing  period  of  culture* 

An  Eskimo  who  is  a  practised  whaler  is  called 
"TTtraflKk,"  a  word  which,  originally  meaning  merely 
the  owner  of  a  boat,  has  come  to  have  the  signifi- 
cance of  "dhieftain,"  as  the  great  boat-owners,  the 
more  daring  whalers,  had  unrestricted  authority 
over  their  crews,  and  held  the  position  of  chieftains 
in  their  own  communities. 

Whaling  implements  were  only  allowed  to  be  used 
for  one  season;  this  applies  to  the  skins  of  the  boats, 
and  all  gear  and  equipment.  In  earlier  times,  all 
the  harpooi3S  were  burned  with  the  other  imple- 
ments in  a  great  boofire  during  the  festivals  held  at 
the  eQEdtefsiQuxrf  the  season;  later,  it  became  the  cus- 
teqi^flifeffy  *&  >3baiig  t^p  tie  fearpocm  heads  on  a 
Mgiwty  isrlie  1faty<mteWb~mti£  tiie  chieftain  died, 
wfam  ibey  were  placed  witfa  hjira  in  his  gtave. 

Wfaea  a  man  fa&c!  got  his  first  whale,  it  was  his 
duty,  at  the  gi^eafc  wfaaiug  £ estiva!,  to  tibrow  away 
all  that  he  owned  of  furs  and  other  tilings ;  his  fellow- 


NEW  WAYS  FOR  THE  ESKIMO       313 

villagers  had  then  to  fight  for  a  share,  the  catty 
furs  being  cut  into  fragments  that  as  many  as  pos- 
sible might  have  a  part.  Altogether,  there  were 
many  remarkable  and  amming  customs  associated 
with  the  whaling.  As  a  rule  the  greatest  weight  WBS 
attached  to  meaningless  magic  songs  that  had  to  be 
declaimed  immediately  before  harpooning  was  to 
take  place;  there  were,  however,  aba  other  impor- 
tant points  to  be  observed  before  setting  out,  customs 
originating  in  the  beEef  that  the  whale,  in  the  earii- 
est  days  of  the  world,  had  been  a  human  being,  just 
as  had  other  animals. 

The  whale  is  dangerous  to  hunt,  but  is  also  amen- 
able to  advances  from  human  beings,  especially 
women.  Thus,  for  instance,  a  chief  s  wife,  on  learn- 
ing that  her  husband's  crew  has  harpooned  a  whak 
must  at  once  taie  off  one  boot  aiid  remain  quietly 
in  her  house.  This  preliminary  step  towards  un- 
dressing was  supposed  to  affect  the  soul  of  the  whate 
and  draw  it  towards  the  bouae,  Wlieaa  then  the 
boat  neared  the  land,  she  must  fin  her  water-TOasd 
with  fresh  water  and  go  down  to  the  dead  wbate 
in  order  to  refresh  its  tJbirstiog  soul  with  cool  water. 

The  chieftain  himself  mostly  took  the  part  oC 
steersman;  it  is  reckoned  a  great  art  to  calculate  the 
movements  of  the  whale.  He  would  choose  for  IBS 
harpooner  a  young  and  powerful  man,  whose  duty 
was  to  drive  the  harpoon  into  the  whale  as  soon  as  be 
gave  the  signal  On  the  day  before  gobg  down  to 
the  ice  edge  to  begin  the  wiiaHiig,  the  yoeng  bar- 
pooner  had  to  sleep  in  the  forepart  of  tlie  boat*  #&A 
would  be  visited  there  in  the  ooune  d  t3b@  night  by 


314          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  chiefs  wife.  A  chief  had  as  a  rule  several  wives, 
and  it  was  the  harpooner's  right  to  be  visited  by  the 
youngest  and  prettiest.  This  meeting  with  a  woman 
put  the  young  man  into  high  spirits,  and  the  soul  of 
the  whale  also  was  supposed  to  be  attracted  by  the 
idea  of  being  killed  by  a  man  earning  straight  from  a 
woman. 

That  is  the  way  whaling  was  carried  on  in  the 
olden  days.  Now,  the  old  harpoons  with  their 
ingeniously  worked  flint  and  slate  heads  are  long 
since  relegated  to  the  category  of  antiques,  and  in- 
stead, a  modern  "darting  gun/'  with  explosive 
bombs,  is  used.  Only  the  skin  boat  still  remains; 
it  is  considered  the  most  practical  form  of  craft, 
as  it  has  often  to  be  carried  long  distances  over  the 
ice. 

I  had  learned  tihat  there  was  a  considerable  encamp- 
ment of  inland  folk  on  the  Utorqaq  river,  and  de- 
cided to  go  up,  with  Miteq  and  Anarulunguaq,  and 
visit  them,  Leo  Hansen  remaining  behind  to  get 
some  pictures  of  the  festival  which  the  natives  cele- 
brate on  the  conclusion  of  the  whaling  season.  He 
would  then  come  on  by  sea  when  navigation  opened, 
and  bring  our  collections  through  to  Nome. 

On  the  8th  of  June  we  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
IPterqaq  at  Icy  Cape,  or  as  the  Eskimos  call  it 
^^s^fik,  "the  place  where  kayaks  are  lost" 
is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  settle- 
fc  is  built  on  a  sandbank  so  low  tliat  it  is  some- 
flooded  when  the  wind  blows  hard  on  shore. 
^  bat  the  bHzzards  were  by  no  means 
station  at  Wainwright  was  so  com- 


THE  NALUKATAQ 

At  the  close  of  the  spring  whaling  season,  the  Alaskan  Eskimos  hold  a  great  festival,  with 
singing,  dancing  and  games.  The  principal  item  on  this  part  of  the  programme  is  the  Nalukataq, 
in  which  men  and  women  are  tossed  in  a  blanket  of  walrus  hide. 


NEW  WA  YS  FOR  TOE  ESKIMO       315 

pletely  buried  in  show  that  it  was  hard  to  get  into 
the  houses  at  all.  The  inhabitants  here,  with  a  wfc- 
eran  whaler  named  Jim  Allan,  had  been  working 
hard  since  April  without  getting  so  much  as  a  walrus. 
At  Icy  Cape,  however,  they  had  been  more  for- 
tunate, and  had  got  a  whale,  in  honor  of  which 
event,  the  place  was  fufl  of  visitors  from  a  reindeer 
camp  near  by--the  very  one  I  was  on  my  way  to 
visit.  The  festival  must  come  firet  of  count.  It 
was  on  the  loth,  and  fortunately  the  weather  was 
magnificent.  Men,  women  and  children  were  dressed 
in  new  garments  specially  made  for  the  occasion,  and 
gathered  in  the  course  of  the  forenoon  at  the  qagsse, 
or  dance  hall. 

Certain  parts  of  the  whale  meat— *he  tail,  dorsal 
fin  and  the  skin  from  the  jaws — are  set  aside  as 
delicacies  for  the  feast.  There  are  games,  including  a 
glorified  form  of  tossing  in  a  blanket,  two  walrus 
hides  sewn  together  being  held  out  by  as  many 
hands  as  can  find  a  hold,  and  the  victim  then  shot 
up  into  the  air,  endeavoring  to  come  down  upright 
and  feet  foremost.  Roars  of  laughter  greet  those  who 
fail;  and  not  infrequently  broken  bones  may  result, 
When  this  has  gone  on  for  some  boors,  the  feasting 
begins,  and  lasts  for  the  rest  of  that  day  and  the 
night,  with  intervals  of  singing  and  dancing.  Ten 
performers  with  drums  sit  in  a  row,  with  a  chorus  of 
male  and  female  voices  gathered  round;  the  danoexs, 
generally  two  women  and  one  man,  came  in  by  turns. 
I  was  rather  disappointed  in  the  songs,  whicfc  were 
little  more  than  refrains  as  an  accompaniment  to  the 
dance,  with  no  text  to  speak  of;  certainly  nothing  to 


316  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

compare  with  the  lyrics  I  had  found  among  the 
North-west  Passage  Eskimos. 

On  the  following  morning  we  set  off  for  the  main- 
land, to  the  village  where  I  proposed  to  stay  for  the 
present*  Besides  the  old  men  and  women  I  had  spe- 
cially wished  to  see,  there  were  some  yoting  reindeer 
herdsmen,  rounding  up  a  herd  of  some  800  head. 
The  season's  calves  had  to  be  branded,  .which  is 
done  by  marking  the  ears  with  the  owner's  particu- 
lar sign. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  GIFT  OF  SQ8G  AND  DA  NCR 

T^HE  north  arid  north-west  comer  ®t  Alaska,  ccwa- 
prising  all  that  vast  pfeia  to  the  north  c€  the 
Endicott  Motmtains*  is  watered  by  great  rivers, 
which  have  played  a  giiaat  part  as  ***i*t*^fe  ^  o^. 
municatkHi  dtmag  tfee  period  before  the  arrival  erf 
the  white  men.  Three  riv^era  rising  dose  together 
gave  rise  to  the  many  villages  in  the  intericH;  and 
served  as  waterways  thnau^i  the  country,  in  which 
all  the  Eskimos  formed  ooe  community,  with  winter 


Noatafc,  ^wiag  mto  Ettoefe^  Sorod,  tite  UtofTjaq, 
debouching  into  great  lagoon  between 
Point  Lay,  and  finally  r  Colville  i?iver,  witfi  its  great 
deita  luting  tfae  ArcUe  Ocean  aear  C^e  HaDkett, 

The  Bsicfauos  call  the  Colvilte  Rivw  Ktigpik,  or  the 
Great  Rhner,  bnt  the  dwdBers  on  its  bonks  are  called 
after  one  erf  it®  tributary 


. 

It  is  quite  isear  tibe  source  of  the  Utcm}aq,  only 
«|»mtad  by  a  x^oge  of  Mils,  the  Qimeq  ,  the  distance 
betweeta  them  being  so  slight  that  f&i*i  boats  CMI  eas- 
ily be  carried  from  o&e  rhner  fco  the  othear. 

The  Kangiaaernahit  sailed  down  the  Coivifle 
River  in  the  spring,  when  the  chartnd  WES  dear  of 
ice;  often  fifty  boats  at  a  time,  or  something  HVe  500 

317 


3i 8          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

souls.  Little  wonder  that  the  Indians  feared  them! 
The  journey  up  river  took  longer,  and  the  boats  had 
to  be  towed  by  men  and  dogs  together  over  the 
many  readies  where  the  current  was  too  strong  for 
paddling.  A  great  camp  was  formed  in  the  delta, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  summer,  salmon  were  caught 
in  great  numbers  for  winter  use,  the  implements 
used  being  nets  made  of  caribou  sinew.  Caribou 
hunting  was  also  carried  on  at  the  same  time  for 
present  needs.  The  object  of  the  visit,  however, 
was  to  procure  blubber  from  the  natives  round  Point 
Barrow,  who  came  out  here  to  trade.  Encounters 
with  the  Indians  were  not  infrequent,  and  every 
man  who  had  slain  an  Indian  was  tattooed  at  tie 
comers  of  the  month  as  a  mark  of  distinction. 

AH  tliese  people  loved  their  inland  life  and  the 
merry  journeys  up  and  down  the  river  in  parties, 
In  summer  they  lived  in  tents  of  caribou  skin,  built 
to  a  special  pattern,  on  a  wooden  framework  of  some 
twenty  branches  interwoven  so  as  to  form  a  kind  of 
beehive  dwelling,  easy  to  heat.  A  tent  of  this 
kind  is  called  Qalorvik.  Winter  houses  were  built  on 
the  same  principle,  but  with  a  stranger  framework, 
and  covered,  first  with  peat  or  inoss,  and  then  with 
earth  stamped  dawn  to  form  a  hard  crust.  The 
inside  was  thea  lined  with  a  thick  layer  of  branches 
to  pfswertfc  the  earth  feom  crambliog  down.  The 
w-bofe  was  then  fomit  error  with  snow  blocks,  resem- 
blk*g  an  ofxfiaarjr  snow  trat;  indeed,  it  was  probably 
modelled  on  this.  Large  stones  set  in  the  middle  of 
the  floor  formed  a  fireplace,  and  a  hole  was  kit 
in,  ibe  rod  above  to  let  out  the  sisoke. 


SAGPLUAQ,  FROM  COLVILLE  RIVER 

He  was  young  in  the  days  when  caribou  were  still  hunted  with  bow  and  arrow. 


THE  GIFT  OF  SONG  AND  DANCE     319 

The  natives  of  the  Noetak  River  mewed  down  in 
the  spring  to  Cape  Seppings  and  Kotaebue  Strand, 
while  those  of  the  Utorqaq,  the  Utorqarnriutt  as  they 
are  calkdf  made  for  the  whalers'  quarters  at  Icy 
Cape.  The  Utorqanmtit  are  also  called  the  wolf 
people,  on  account  of  their  following  the  caribou 
like  wolves,  instead  of  staying  at  one  place  through- 
out the  winter.  These  migrations  took  place  be- 
tween October  aod  March,  aloog  the  frooea  riven, 
which  with  their  many  tributaries  form  a  ttetwwit  of 
paths  through  the  hills  aad  wooded  valleys.  Owing 
to  the  scarcity  of  food  for  the  dogs,  teams  were  gen- 
erally reduced  to  two,  and  raen  and  women  hauled 
at  the  sledges  themselves. 

Thtas,  fotighly,  was  the  itmnd  of  Kfe  among  the 
dwellers  on  the  great  rivers,  Geoerally  speaking, 
they  lived  at  peace  among  themselves,  and  also  with 
the  coast  folk  with  whom  they  traded.  But  with 
those  fiviog  farther  o^  Aey  W^OT  oonsiauxtty  at 
and  constant  watchfulaess  <wm  aacessary,  as 
enemies  might  at  any  time  swoop  down  upoa  *0y 
party  that  could  be  takea  ttoawares.  The  maa 
always  lay  down  witib  tibear  weapoas  ready  to  haodL 

Affcer  the  primitive  methods  in  rae  amoog  Hie 
Caribou  Bskimoe  of  tfaa  Baxtm  Grooa(3s,  %  m 
interesting  to  see  the  d«®roB  of  skill  and  ingeomty 
which  these  peopfe  had  devdkjped  in  thehr 
apa^ 


fewer  tb^  twmty  soch  meth^ 

varkms  kinds  af  ^me,  M4  to*  down,  fowi 
the  lips  of  my  irfcwi^^  Sagdh«qu  dalrite  irf 

most  important* 


320          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

As  regards  their  religious  ideas,  I  found  here, 
despite  the  difference  in  conditions  of  life  as  com- 
pared with  the  eastern  tribes,  the  same  fundamental 
principles  as  I  have  already  noted.  Their  spiritual 
culture,  like  their  material,  was  on  a  higher  level, 
but  based  on  the  same  ideas  of  tabu,  of  spells  and 
charms  and  propitiation  of  evil  spirits,  with  the 
angakoq  as  mediators  between  them  and  the  super- 
natural powers.  It  has  hitherto  been  generally 
believed  that  incipient  totemism  existed  in  these 
regions,  and  the  marks  found  on  implements  have 
been  adduced  as  evidence  of  this.  Were  this  the 
case,  it  would  mean  a  breach  of  continuity  between 
the  eastern  and  the  western  tribes.  I  therefore 
devoted  particular  attention  to  the  study  of  this 
question,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  marks 
fotmd  on  harpoons,  knives,  and  implements  gener- 
ally, which  had  formerly  been  regarded  as  totem 
marks,  were  purely  personal,  a  means  whereby  the 
owner  could  readily  identify  his  property,  as  we 
might  use  initiate  or  a  crest. 

Here  also  we  find  the  dominant  principle  of  rites 
aiad  prohibitions  in  connection  with  the  different 
animals  httnted;  sfems  of  caribou  must  not  be  worked 
on  sear  the  sea,  nor  those  of  the  seal  within  sight 
of  tte  river;  certain  work  must  only  be  done  at 
^Sgous,  and  the  like.  Particular  rules  ob- 
tained m  *^tod  to  caribou  caught  in  traps;  such 
anftnafes  must  never  be  cut  up  with  iron  knives,  but 
only  with  flint  or  ^ate;  a&d  tie  meat  had  to  be  cooked 
iti  special  pots. 

Wolf  aasd  wolverine  are  more  or  less  of  a  luxury, 


THE  GIFT  OF  SONG  AND  DANCE     3*1 

inasmuch  as  their  flesh  is  not  eateo,  and  they  am 
only  sought  for  as  providing  a  finer  sort  of  fur  for 
triimniags.  The  hunter  who  aspires  to  the  pursuit 
of  these  must  not  cut  his  hair,  or  drink  hot  scmpt  for 
a  whole  winter,  and  no  hammer  erf  nay  sort  must  be 
used  in  his  house.  On  returning  home  with  the 
skin  of  a  wolf,  intricate  ceremonies  haTO  to  be  ob- 
served, in  which  the  neighbors  abo  take  part. 

The  hunter  must  Srst  walk  round  his  own  home, 
following  the  sun.  For  a  male  wdf  t  be  strips  tm 
heel  four  times  against  the  mil  of  the  house,  five 
times  for  a  female,  indicating  the  four  and  five  days* 
tabu  for  male  and  female  respectively  .  At  the  same 
time,  the  women  inside  the  house  must  bow  their 
heads  aad  turn  their  faces  away  from  the  entrance, 
while  a  tnan  runs  out  and  informs  all  the  men  in  the 
other  houses  of  the  kilL  Then  all  go  out  with  their 
knives,  in  the  lK>petfo^ 

to  fee  st2i  present  in  l&e  skio,  nrigfet  .^flfe"  tiw 
knives  aad  let  itself  be  eaugfrt  tjy  them  neat  tm». 
The  hunter  then  carries  the  skin  to  the  drying  Imw 
and  hangs  it  up;  a  young  man  ruas  up  with  a  piece  ol 
caribou  skin  wfaicfa  he  hands  to  the  himfaer.  The 
latter  then  strips,  and  staacfog  naked  in  the  «»p«r9 
rube  hinsdf  all  over  with  a  piece  of  caribou  dtia, 
after  which  a  fire  is  fit,  and  he  further  deaoses  his 
body  %  sfcaadipg  in  tibe  smofce.  His  knives,  bows 
and  ans>ws  are  hung  up  beside  the  wolf's  skia  and  &fi 
present  cry  atotd:  "Now  it  sleeps  with  us"—  "it" 
being  the  soul  of  lite  mciL 

The  htmter  thea  extern  bis  o«m  hot 


beside  his  wife,  all  the  wcwaai  stift  sitttog  with  beads 


322          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

bowed  and  faces  averted.  The  hut  is  then  deco- 
rated with  all  the  most  valuable  possessions:  knives 
and  axes,  often  of  flint  or  jade,  are  hung  up,  bead 
ornaments,  tools,  anything  a  wolf  might  be  sup- 
posed to  like,  or  that  the  family  specially  value. 
Then  all  the  men  of  the  village  come  in,  and  the 
hunter  tells  stories,  not  to  amuse  his  guests,  but  to 
entertain  the  soul  of  the  wolf.  It  is  strictly  forbidden 
to  laugh  or  even  smile;  the  wolf  might  then  become 
suspicious  and  lake  it  for  gritting  of  teeth.  Two 
stories  must  always  be  told,  as  one  "cannot  stand 
alone."  Then  the  visitors  leave,  and  all  can  retire 
to  rest. 

But  the  ceremonial  is  not  yet  done  with.  On  the 
following  morning,  the  soul  of  the  wolf  has  to  be  sent 
on  its  way.  The  hunter  falls  on  one  knee  by  the 
fire  place,  with  a  white  stone  hammer  in  his  hand, 
and  sings  a  magic  song,  and  then  howls:  "Uhu!" 
four  times  for  a  male,  five  times  for  a  female  wolf, 
and  raps  four  or  five  times  on  the  floor  of  the  hut! 
He  then  runs  out  and  clambers  up  on  to  the  roof, 
Hstening  at  the  window,  while  another  mm  takes  his 
post  by  the  fireplace  and  cries  out,  "How  many?" 
The  ouster  outside  answers  "Four"  or  "Five"  ac- 
to  tfce  sex  of  the  wolf,  and  the  man  within 
This  ceremony  has  to  be  re- 


ete  -houses.    Then  all  the  men 
where  the  skin  is  hung  up,  and 

gone  through  once  more,  all 
crying  at  last: 

«snow  as  a  good  sotfl,  as  a  strong  soul!" 
a0w,  but  not  before,  a  great  banquet  is  held 


WOMEN  FROM  POINT  BARROW 

A  half-breed  and  a  pure  Eskimo,  both  wearing  the  picturesque  dresses  made  from  the  »hitt- 
spotted  skin  of  tame  animals  trimmed  with  fur  of  wolf  and  wolverine. 


THE  GIFT  OP  SONG  AND  DANCE     3*3 

in  the  hunter's  house,  the  feast  Bymbotiing  the  dead 
wolfs  provision  for  the  jouraey.  AH  the  meat  has 
to  be  cut  tip  beforehand  into  mcwtibfuls,  for  though 
each  guest  brings  his  knife,  no  fcaives  are  allowed  to 
be  used,  nor  may  the  meat  be  served  o&  an  ordinary 
dish,  but  must  be  set  out  on  a  caribou  skin.  All 
available  delicacies  are  served  up  with  the  greatest 
care.  Nothing  must  be  left,  and  anything  not  eaten 
must  at  once  be  given  to  the  dogs, 

No  hunter  may  kffl  more  than  five  wohres  and  five 
foxes  in  one  season  ;  as  soon  as  this  number  is  reached  , 
all  his  traps  have  to  be  taken  in.  Neglect  of  this 
precaution  involves  either  IOGS  erf  the  a^i^%  already 
caught,  or  the  risk  of  bring  bitten  to  death. 

This  cult  of  the  beast-soul,  or  the  continuation  of 
life  after  death,  reappears  in  numerous  myths  de- 
signed to  instruct  the  merperimced.  A  point  re- 
peatediy  emphasi,zed  is  the  digfat  digeraace  between 
human  and  ammal  fife,  and  w&  find  oongtaut  refer- 
enee  to  the  times  wfiaa  beasts  could  turn  into  mm 
and  men  often  lived  as  beasts.  I  give  oae  of  tita& 
myths  as  told  me  by  Sagdhiaq,  of  CohoBe  River. 

How  SONG  AND  DANCB  AND  THS  HOLT  GIFT  o* 
PESTTVAI,  FIRST  CAME  to 


"Theane  were  once  a  man  mid  a  woman  who  Irwed 
fee  sea.  Hie  man  was  a  great  hunter,  soo»- 
tkaes  hii4^tiiig  ga^ie  far  lnteiKty  and 
In 


"Tbea  a  9oe  itasf  fadro  to  *beee  twd 
aM  when  the  boy  grew  op,  his  fether  oa^o 

a  little  bow  for  shooting  birds,  gad  in  time  be  grew 


326          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

to  sing  a  song,  nor  how  to  beat  a  drum  and  dance 
for  joy.  O  Mother,  human  beings  have  no  festi- 
vals, and  here  is  this  young  man  come  to  learn!  ' 

"At  these  words  the  eagle's  old  mother  was  glad 
and  wakened  more  to  life.  And  she  thanked  him 
aaadsaid:  *  But  first  youmust  build  a  big  house  where 
all  the  people  can  gather  together/ 

"So  the  two  young  men  built  a  Qagsse  bigger  and 
finer  than  any  ordinary  house.  And  then  the  old 
eagle  mother  taught  them  to  make  drums,  and  to 
set  words  together  making  songs,  and  then  to  beat 
time  and  sing  together,  and  last  of  all  to  dance. 
And  when  the  young  hunter  had  learned  all  that  was 
needful,  the  eagle  took  him  back  to  the  place  where 
they  had  first  met,  and  from  there  he  went  bade 
alone  to  his  own  place.  And  coming  home,  he  told 
his  father  and  mother  all  that  had  passed,  and  how 
he  had  promised  the  eagles  that  festivals  should  be 
held  among  men* 

"Thai  father  and  son  together  built  a  great 
qagsse  for  the  festival,  and  gathered  great  stores  of 
meat,  and  made  drums  and  made  songs  ready  for  the 
feast;  and  when  all  was  ready,  the  young  man  went 
put  over  great  far  ways  seeking  for  others  to  join 
in  the  feast,  for  they  lived  alone  and  knew  of  no 
others  near.  And  the  young  man  met  others  com- 
ing two  and  two,  some  in  dresses  made  of  wolfskin, 
others  ia  fox  skins,  or  skins  of  wolverine;  all  in  dif- 
ferent dresses.  And  he  asked  them  a31  to  the  fes- 
tivaL 


of  meat,  and  whea  aH  had  eaten,  gifts  were  given 
them,  of  other  tfemgp.  Thea  came  the  singing  and 
dancing,  and  the  guests  learned  all  the  soiigs  and 
could  sooe  tafce  part  in  the  stegbag  tiiemsetvea  So 
they  sang  and  danced  all  night,  aod  the  old  mat?  beat 
*  drum,  that  sounded  Eke  great  iaanamecrs;  Bfce 


THE  GIFT  OF  SONG  AND  DANCE     3*7 

the  heart  of  the  old  eagle  mother  beating.  But 
when  it  was  over,  and  the  guests  went  away*  it  was 
seen  that  those  guests  in  the  skins  of  different  beasts 
were  beasts  themselves,  in  human  form.  For  the 
old  eagle  had  sent  them;  and  so  great  is  the  power  of 
festival  that  even  f^Vnafa  can  turn  into  human 
beiigs* 

"And  some  time  after  this,  the  young  man  was 
out  hunting,  and  again  met  the  young  eagle,  who 
took  frttn  as  before  to  the  boose  where  bis  mother 
lived.  And  lof  the  old  and  wealdy  mother  eagle 
was  grown  young  again;  for  when  men  bold  festival, 
all  the  old  eagles  regain,  their  youth;  and  therefore 
the  eagle  is  the  sacred  bird  of  song  and  dance  and 
festival'* 


CHAPTER  XXV 

UNCLE  SAM'S  NEPHEWS 

I  HAD  BOW  to  bid  farewell  to  some  of  my  faithful 
•*•  dogs.  It  was  impossible  to  take  them  all  the 
way  back  with  me,  and  I  was  anxious  to  leave 
them  sonaewhere  where  they  would  be  well  cared 
for.  I  therefore  handed  over  the  majority  to  Ugper- 
satin,  the  trader  at  ley  Cape,  keeping  only  fottr  in 
case  we  might  h^ve  need  of  them  later  on. 

I  had  been  warned  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
travel  along  the  coast  of  Alaska  at  this  season,  and 
was  prepared  for  the  worst.  Sledging  was  danger- 
ous,  as  the  ice  was  already  adrift  in  many  places; 
we  therefore  decided  to  sail  through  the  lagoons. 
Bart  of  the  way  we  were  towed  by  the  dogs,  where 
the  coastline  admitted  of  this;  the  arritr^tls  trotted 
along  on  shore,  with  the  boat  at  the  end  of  a  long 
towHne  out  in.  the  water;  often  at  such  a  pace  as  to 
sewl  tip  a  i  ottntain  of  spray  from  the  bows.  At 
times  we  ran  aground  in  the  shallows,  and  had  to 
turn  out  and  wade  about  looking  for  some  passable 
Bffcer  tfctree  days  of  this  we  reached  Point 


»  !ttie£e  t2b»e  ^ras  an  Eskimo  village, 
The  natives  h»e  were  too  well  off  foe  wwds.    My 
host,  Toripa,  had  a  store  of  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  flow, 
tobacco,  petroleum  almost  enough  for  a  ysear,  witli  a 


I 


X 

M 
C 


ii 


I! 
Is 


I 


330          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

and  carrying  off  more  houses,  it  is  impossible  to  say 
what  may  have  been  the  original  number.  Prob- 
ably, the  village  here  and  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood had  at  one  time  something  like  2000  souls,  or 
as  many  as  are  now  to  be  found  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  North-west  Passage  between  the  Mag- 
netic Pole  and  Herschel  Island.  Human  bones  are 
scattered  about  everywhere,  and  Mr.  Thomas  in- 
formed me  that  he  had  himself  during  his  short  term 
of  residence  seen  to  the  interment  of  4000  skulls! 

The  whaling  here  is  still  excellent,  and  there  was 
abundance  of  everything,  with  no  fear  for  the  com- 
ing winter.  I  arranged  with  a  couple  of  story- 
tellers to  work  with  me,  and  thanks  to  the  kindness 
of  my  host,  Mr.  Thomas,  was  able  to  spend  my  time 
to  the  best  advantage.  Qalajaoq,  a  notable  author- 
ity on  local  affairs,  gave  me  the  following  account  of 
the  origin  of  the  place: 

"In  long  forgotten  times,  there  were  no  lowlands 
here  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  and  men  lived 
on  the  summit  of  the  great  mount  Irrisugssuk, 
south  east  of  Kotzebue  Sound;  that  was  the  only 
land  which  rose  from  the  sea;  and  on  its  top  may 
still  be  found  the  skeletons  of  whales,  from  those 
first  men's  hunting.  And  that  was  in  the  time  when 
men  stai  waJleed  on  their  hands,  head  downwards; 
^o  towage  i*  was. 

.  "Ik&ifcttL  one  day  the  Ravenr-iie  who  created 
heaven  aixd-eartWrowed  out  to  sea  in  his  kayak 
far  out  to  sea,  and  there  he  saw  something  dark  mov- 
ing aad  squelching  on  the  surface  of  the  water.  He 
rowed  out  and  harpooned  it;  blood  flowed  from  the 
wound  he  had  made.  The  raven  t330t$£ht  it  nmst 


UNCLE  SAM'S  NEPHEWS  331 

be  a  whale,  but  then  saw  that  it  was  a  huge  dead 
mass  without  beginning  or  end.  Slowly  the  life 
ebbed  from  it,  and  he  fastened  his  towline  to  it  and 
towed  it  in  to  the  foot  of  the  hills  south  of  Uivfaq. 
Here  he  made  it  fast,  and  on  the  following  day, 
when  he  went  down  to  look  at  it,  he  saw  it  was  stiff; 
it  had  turned  into  land.  And  there  among  the  old 
ruins  of  houses  may  still  be  seen  a  strange  hole  in 
the  ground;  that  is  the  spot  where  the  raven  har- 
pooned TiMtaq.  And  that  is  how  this  land  came," 

The  Tikerarmiut  were  once  a  mighty  people,  and 
there  is  a  legend  of  a  great  battle  fought  by  them  on 
land  and  sea  against  the  Nunatarmiut,  somewhere 
near  Cape  Seppings;  the  Tikerarmiut  were  badly 
defeated,  and  never  regained  their  former  power* 
Then  in  i8&7  came  the  establishment  of  the  whaling 
station  at  Point  Hope,  The  chief  of  that  period, 
Arangaussaq,  endeavored  to  oppose  the  progress  of 
the  white  men,  but  without  avail,  and  m  Ms  death 
the  natives  made  peace  with  the  whites,  who  thence 
forward  assumed  the  mastery. 

Point  Hope  is  most  interesting  as  a  centre  and 
repository  of  the  ancient  Eskimo  culture,  with  much 
that  is  not  found  elsewhere.  I  gained  some. consid- 
erable knowledge  of  their  more  particular  mysteries 
from  Qalajaoq.  A  notable  feature  is  the  use  of 
maAs  a»t  figttres  in  their  festivals,  which  is  carried 
to  an  extoooilsary  degree. 

The  angakoq,  &£ter  a  visit  to  the  spirit  world, 
endeavors  to  give  a  record  of  what  he  has  seen  by 
carving  masks  to  represe&t  the  different  faces  he 


332          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

has  seen,  the  spirits  also  being  present.  He  further 
calls  in  the  aid  of  others,  who  carve  according  to  his 
instructions,  producing  a  great  number  of  remark- 
ably fantastic  masks.  Special  songs  and  dances  are 
composed,  and  used  in  conjunction  with  the  masks 
at  the  great  feasts,  which  are  held  at  different  sea- 
sons in  honor  of  the  different  animals  forming  the 
staple  of  food. 

Greatest  of  all  is  the  Great  Thanksgiving  Festival 
to  the  souls  of  dead  whales*  This  is  held  in  the 
qagsse,  which  serves  ordinarily  as  a  place  of  assem- 
bly for  all  the  men  of  the  place,  but  on  special  occa- 
sions as  a  temple  or  banqueting  hall.  The  upper 
part  of  the  interior  at  the  back  is  painted  to  repre- 
sent a  starlit  sky,  much  trouble  being  taken  to  pro- 
cure colored  stones  to  serve  for  pigments*  A 
carved  wooden  image  of  a  bird  hangs  from  the  roof, 
its  wings  being  made  to  move  and  beat  four  drums 
placed  round  it.  On  the  floor  is  a  spinning  top  stuck 
about  with  feathers;  close  by  is  a  doll,  or  rather  the 
upper  half  of  one,  and  on  a  frame  some  distance  from 
the  floor  is  a  model  skin  boat,  complete  with  crew 
and  requisites  for  whaling. 

The  proceedings  open  with  the  singing  of  a  hymn; 
then  a  man  springs  forward  and  commences  to  dance; 
this,  however,  is  merely  the  signal  for  mechanical 
mar^db  to  begin.  The  bird  flaps  its  wings  and 
foeafe  its  drams  with  a  steady  rhythmic  beat.  The 
top  is  set  spjnrtfng,  throwing  out  the  feathers  in 
all  directions  as  it  goes;  the  crew  of  the  boat  get  to 
work  with  thdr  paddles;  the  doll  without  legs  iKxJs 
beyws  in  all  directions;  and  most  wonderful  of 


UNCLE  SAM'S  NEPHEWS  333 

all,  a  little  ermine  sticks  out  its  head  from  its  hole 
in  the  wall,  pops  back  again  and  then  looks  out,  and 
finally  runs  across  to  the  other  side  to  vanish  into 
another  hole,  snapping  up  a  rattle  with  a  bladder 
attached  as  it  goes*  All  hold  their  breath,  for  should 
the  creature  fail  to  enter  the  hole  with  rattle  and 
bladder  behind  it,  one  of  those  present  must  die 
within  the  year.  But  all  goes  well,  and  the  company 
gasp  in  relief.  Then  follows  a  general  distribution 
of  gifts,  edible  delicacies  mostly,  to  all  present,  and 
the  guests  depart. 

On  the  3ist  of  July,  having  collected  a  great  store 
of  folklore,  and  finding  the  weather  more  favorable, 
I  decided  to  push  on.  We  travelled  now  in  a  little 
dinghy  with  motor  attached,  keeping  dose  in  to 
shore  and  visiting  natives  here  and  there.  We  met 
Elektuna,  the  first  of  the  Eskimos  to  own  tanie  rein- 
deer; he  has  IK>W  a  herd  of  SOD  bead,  tended  fey  him- 
self and  two  sons.  On  the  3rd  of  August  we  came 
to  a  camp  of  young  people  from  Noataq  River,  with 
a  herd  of  3000  reindeer,  of  which  1000  were  the 
property  of  a  single  man.  These  people  were  deanly, 
intelligent,  well  to  do,  and  contented,  retaining  many 
of  their  sound  Eskimo  qualities,  but  speaking  Eng- 
lish fluently,  and  living  as  traders,  in  direct  comtnu-. 
meatabu  with  Seattle. 

At  1S§fcj  on  the  7th  of  August,  we  crossed  Kotzebue 
Sotmd;  i^^afegr  i^ts  sMJow,  and  perfectly  fresh,  as 
three  riv&s,  tbtf  Noatak,  Kuvak  a&d  Sffivik,  flow 
out  into  the  sea  just  fa&ne*  We  had  to  mate  a  wide 
sweep  round,  following  <3iffetfeat  dbannels,  and  landed 


334          A CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

late  in  the  evening  among  gold-diggers,  traders  and 
Eskimo  salmon  fishers. 

Kotzebue  was  an  outstanding  point  on  our  long 
journey;  for  here  it  was  that  I  could  get  into  touch 
once  more  with  the  outer  world,  after  three 
years  of  exile;  here  at  last  I  should  find  a  tele- 
graph station — the  most  northerly  in  America. 
Naturally  then,  my  first  errand  on  landing  was  to 
send  a  message  home  announcing  the  successful  com- 
pletion of  our  long  sledge  trip.  We  had  pitched  our 
camp  among  the  Eskimo  tents,  and  the  telegraph 
station  lay  in  the  opposite  end  of  the  town.  And 
my  mind  was  very  busy  as  I  strode  down  to  the  office, 
mentally  writing  out  my  message  on  the  way. 

I  was  not  a  little  disappointed  then  to  learn  that 
the  telegraph,  newly  installed,  was  not  in  working 
order  at  the  moment;  the  operator,  whom  I  had 
looked  to  electrify  with  my  news,  listened  stolidly, 
and  suggested  at  last  that  I  might  try  to  get  through 
from  The  Boxer,  a  vessel  lying  some  ten  miles  to 
the  south.  This  meant  waiting  till  next  day  with 
a  sleepless  night  between,  and  this  too  failed.  I 
had  perforce  to  return  to  the  office  in  Kotzebue  again, 
and  it  was  two  days — the  longest  on  the  whole  expe- 
%ditio&— before  the  operator  succeeded  in  getting 
through  to  Nome.  The  same  evening  I  had  the 
fefty  from  Copenhagen.  .  AH  was  well  at  home,  and 
my  ooosrades  had  got  through  successfully. 

The  gofod  news  affected  me  to  such  an  extent  that 
for  the  fiSBfc  time  in  months  I  put  aside^aH  thought 
of  rwork,  and  treated  myself  to  an  unlimited  rest. 


UNCLE  SAM'S  NEPHEWS  335 

I  slept  for  twenty-four  hours,  to  the  great  astonish- 
ment of  those  about  me.  Thus  refreshed,  I  could 
look  about  for  the  best  means  of  utilizing  our  stay 
here  until  the  mailboat  from  Nome  could  take  us  on. 

Kotzebue  (Qeqertarsuk)  was  the  biggest  town  we 
had  visited  as  yet,  with  a  school,  postoffice,  the  afore- 
mentioned telegraph  station,  and  five  or  six  big  shops. 
Then  there  ware  gold  diggers  of  various  nationali- 
ties; and  a  camp  of  about  a  thousand  Eskimos. 

In  the  white  traders'  quarter,  I  came  tipon  an 
enterprising  young  native,  Peter  Sheldon,  who 
owned  a  small  motor  boat,  a  neat  and  swift  little 
craft  with  cabin  and  skylights;  the  very  thing  for  a 
trip  up  the  river  and  a  glance  at  the  country  round. 
I  arranged  with  him  to  go  up  the  Kuvak  as  far  as 
Noorvik,  of  which  I  had  heard  a  great  deal  already. 

Noorvik  is  a  remarkable  place,  a  township  bttilt 
to  order,  for  the  Bureau  of  Education.  It  had  been 
found  difficult  to  work  with  the  atimezoos  scattered 
little  Eskimo  villages  with  a  few  children  in  each, 
and  arrangements  were  therefore  made  to  shift 
them  up  inland  where  they  could  be  tatight  together, 
and  at  the  same  time  removed  from  the  danger  of 
demoralizing  influences  on  the  coast.  The  result 
was  a  model  town  of  300  inhabitants. 

At  six  in  the  morning  we  sailed  across  Hotham 
Inlet  and  entered  the  Kuvak.  It  was  wonderful 
Hie  sun  had  come  out  after  a  long  spell  of 
aa&I  Hrisfc;  aM  we,  who  had  been  blockaded  by 
ice  ^rm^KMt  tibe  srcmmer,  revelled  in  the  slgfct  <k 
this  new  cotixitry,  unljlra  any  Eskimo  territory  we 
had  ever  seen.  Heare  were  wooded  hills,  fringing 


336  A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  fertile  delta,  rich  grass  land  and  soft  warm 
breezes  laden  with  the  scent  of  trees  and  flowers. 

Hotham  Inlet  (Imarsuk)  is  a  big  sheet  of  water, 
looking  bigger  than  It  is  from  the  fact  that  the  low 
shores  are  invisible  until  one  is  close  upon  them. 
Here,  as  throughout  the  whole  bay,  the  water  is  so 
shallow  that  navigation  is  only  possible  by  follow- 
ing the  channels  of  the  rivers.  In  rough  weather, 
the  crossing  is  impossible,  as  the  water  simply  boils 
over  the  shallows,  and  parts  axe  left  high  and  dry. 

In  the  course  of  the  morning,  we  reached  the 
Kuvak  Delta,  a  big  plain  cut  through  by  numerous 
channels,  forming  a  maze  which  it  would  be  impos- 
sible to  negotiate  with  safety  were  it  not  for  the  marks 
set  up  at  intervals  along  the  fairway.  The  land- 
scape seems  altogether  tropical  to  us,  after  the  deso- 
lation. o£  the  Arctic  coast*  Bushes,  low  trees  and 
tall  grass  run  right  out  into  the  water,  and  ducks, 
geese  and  other  waterfowl  rise  noisily  as  we  near 
them.  At  noon  we  land  at  a  Kttle  "road  house " 
or  travellers'  shelter,  open  to  any  who  happen  to 
pass.  It  is  designed  more  especially  for  winter  use, 
and  comprises,  in  addition  to  the  house  itself,  a 
kennel  with  room  for  15  dogs,  a  store  of  hay  and  a 
stack  of  firewood.  We  got  a  fire  going  in  the  stove, 
and  had  a  meal  ready  in  a  twinkling.  This  disposed 
of,  we  went  off  up  river  once  more*  The  vegeta- 
tion grows  richer  and  taller  as  we  advance,  and  a 
cottpfe  of  hours  after  leaving  the  road  house  we  have 
fir  trees  osa  either  side.  Only  a  few  at  first,  looking 
Kfae  fojgotten  Christmas  trees,  solitary  strangers 
the  native  birch  a&d  willow,  but  they  soon 


NASUK,  FROM  KOTZEBUE  SOUND 

An  old  wiseacre,  well  up  in  the  ancient  traditions  of  his  people  and  an  excellent  teller  of 

folk  tales. 


UNCLE  SAM'S  NEPHEWS  337 

grow  bigger  and  more  numerous  as  we  go  on,  until 
there  are  whole  woods,  running  down  to  the  water's 
edge.  Farther  on  again,  the  banks  are  tangled  for- 
est where  axes  would  be  needed  to  cut  a  way  through. 
Here  and  there  we  come  upon  a  deserted  village; 
the  natives  have  forsaken  their  fathers*  hunting 
grounds  and  gathered  about  the  modem  wonders  of 
Noorvik. 

We  reached  there  late  that  evening,  a&d  found  the 
place  well  worth  a  visit.  Three  schoolmasters,  an 
inspector,  a  doctor  and  two  nurses  attend  to  the 
various  departments,  and  all  are  earnestly  interested 
in  the  work.  Everything  is  arranged  on  the  most 
modern  lines.  There  is  a  fine  hospital  with  an  oper- 
ating theatre  excellently  equipped,  and  40  beds, 
the  whole  in  a  two-storied  building.  Medical  attend- 
ance and  medicines  are  free,  but  patients  admitted 
to  hospital  pay  75  cents  per  day  if  they  can  afiord  it. 
I  found  natives  of  all  ages  hem;  omvale^ceafe  were 
admitted  to  the  doctors'  rooms  aaad  were  given 
books,  magazines  and  ifltisfcrated  papers,  besides 
being  entertaiBed  with  gramophone  concerts.  They 
seemed  to  be  having  a  t3borou^ily  good  time  alto- 
gether. 

The  Eskimos  live  IB  neat  wooden  houses,  with. 
electric  light  installed;  for  this,  a  charge  of  a  dollar 
per  &K*ath  per  house  is  made,  the  proceeds  serving 
t^B  stages  of  the  engineer  in  charge  of  the 
Eskimos  have  themselves 
tfa®     eaaeratar,  tibe 


being  provided  by  the  state.    The  place  bemg  in 
good  timber  country,  a  SOTrariH  has  been  set  tip  and 


338  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  natives  can  have  any  quantity  cut  on 
in  kind,  a  sixth  of  the  load  being  the  usual  cost. 
The  doctor's  wife,  who  is  herself  a  nurse,  acts  as  a 
kind  of  sanitary  inspector  and  looks  after  hygienic 
conditions  in  the  homes.  Last  winter,  a  flag  with  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  was  offered  as  a  prize  to  the  house- 
wife who  kept  her  home  in  finest  order.  Visits  of 
inspection  were  made  at  all  hours  throughout  the 
winter  in  the  different  homes,  but  the  lady  inspector 
found  them  invariably  so  thoroughly  washed  and 
scoured  and  clean  and  neat  that  no  white  woman 
could  have  done  better.  At  the  end  of  the  term, 
the  question  as  to  who  should  have  the  flag  became 
a  problem  indeed,  for  all  seemed  equally  to  have 
deserved  it.  And  the  ingenious  solution  ultimately 
arrived  at  was,  that  it  should  go  to  the  one  who 
had  most  children  and  yet  had  kept  her  house  as 
dean  as  the  test. 

The  white  men  seem  to  be  thoroughly  well  in  con- 
tact with  the  natives  all  round.  The  Inspector  often 
goes  out  felling  timber  with  them,  and  lives  in  camp 
among  them.  His  wife  helps  the  girls  with  their 
needlework,  in  addition  to  her  missionary  work. 
The  doctor  takes  an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
community  apart  from  his  own  special  task. 

could  be  said  for  and  against  such  an 
Theoretically,  it  looks  excellent,  as  an 
fe  systematic  popular  education.    But  it 


k  always  -ri^ky  to  interfere  overmuch  in  the  private 
lie  of  gitwn  men  and  women.  The  Eskimos  appear 
t  wiiii  their  fife  hare  so  far,  though  they  do 


gieaily  ifce  .iJife  ^^omatic  u%fats  otrt"  at  9 


UNCLE  SAM'S  NEPHEWS  339 

P.M.  or  the  prohibition  of  smoking.  These  of  course 
are  trifles,  thotigh  ttndoubtedly  constituting  inter- 
ference with  the  liberty  of  the  subject.  More  seri- 
ous is  the  increase  in  competition  owing  to  num- 
bers. In  consequence  of  this,  the  hunters,  in  the 
trapping  season,  have  to  leave  the  settlement  and 
scatter  in  distant  camps  throughout  the  forest,  while 
women  and  children  are  left  behind  out  of  regard 
to  the  schooling.  The  same  applies  to  the  fishing 
season  in  spring  and  autumn.  It  is  perhaps  doubt- 
ful whether  this  splitting  up  of  families  can  go  on  for 
long;  at  present,  owing  to  the  confidence  inspired 
by  the  Bureau  of  Education  among  the  natives,  it 
seems  to  work  well  enough. 

We  spent  a  day  at  Noorvik,  and  were  most  hos- 
pitably entertained  in  all  the  houses  we  visited.  On 
the  following  evening  we  were  back  in  Kotzebue, 
once  more. 

On  the  2ist  of  August  the  mailboat  from  Nome,  a 
little  schooner  named  the  Silver  Wave,  arrived.  We 
went  on  board,  and  found  the  Captain  was  a  Nor- 
wegian, John  Hegness.  After  a  stormy  voyage,  we 
reached  Nome  on  the  3ist  of  August. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC 

XJOME  lies  on  a  moist  grassy  plain  with  a  fine 
*^  range  of  fertile  hills  in  the  badkground,  mak- 
ing an  Imposing  picture  to  those  coming  from  the 
wastes  of  ice  and  snow.  My  two  Greenlanders 
gazed  wide-eyed  at  the  spectacle,  impressed  by  the 
white  men's  power  of  forming  great  settlements  far 
from  their  own  country. 

Thirty  years  ago,  the  population  consisted  of  a 
few  Eskimo  families^  winning  a  bare  existence  from 
the  sea.  Then,  in  1900,  gold  was  found,  and  as  if 
by  magic  a  town  sprang  up,  with  room  for  ten 
thousand  souls.  The  haste  with  which  it  was  con- 
structed shows  even  now  in  the  lack  of  regard  for 
beauty  or  comfort.  Gold  was  the  one  idea.  It  is  said 
that  in  Nome,  there  is  gold  underfoot  wherever  you 
tread;  and  during  the  last  twenty  years,  the  district 
has  produced  over  eighty  million  dollars.  Methods 
at  first  were  of  the  most  primitive  sort;  men  dug 
with  spades  in  the  sand  wherever  they  could  get  at 
it,  or  stood  in  lines  along  the  shore  trying  to  wash  out 
gold  dust  from  the  sand.  Mighty  machines  have 
superseded  all  this,  and  men  now  prefer  the  certainty 
of  a  high  wage  regularly  paid  to  the  chance  of  a 
fortune  that  may  never  come, 

340 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC   341 

The  season  at  Nome  is  but  short;  in  the  first  half 
of  June  the  ice  disappears  and  navigation  begins; 
by  the  end  of  October,  or  early  in  November,  the 
last  vessel  has  left  for  the  south.  The  summer 
population  now  is  about  2000;  in  winter  barely  900, 
chiefly  whites;  of  the  permanent  residents  hardly 
more  than  a  hundred  are  Eskimos.  The  town  is  a 
sort  of  capital  for  North-west  Alaska,  a  centre  for 
equipment  of  trading  expeditions,  and  the  constant 
stream  of  people  passing  through  in  summer  pro- 
vides a  means  of  existence  for  stores,  agencies  and 
trades  of  various  kinds. 

My  companions  were  naturally  interested  in  the 
sights  of  the  place ;  the  streets  with  their  curious  wood 
paving,  and  the  shops  with  all  manner  of  wares 
they  had  never  seen  before.  Anarulunguaq  in  par- 
ticular cotfld  hardly  believe  it  was  all  real.  After  a 
first  look  round,  we  went  into  a  restaurant  to  get 
something  to  eat.  To  my  astordsfarae&t,  *we  ware 
turned  out!  I  had  forgotten  that  we  were  now  in 
regions  where  people  are  judged  by  their  outward 
appearance,  and  had  not  given  a  thought  to  oar  old, 
worn  clothes.  We  took  the  hint,  however,  aad  at 
once  set  about  to  procure  the  garments  of  respect- 
ability; took  rooms  at  an  hotel,  and  arranged  our 
mode  of  life  on  modern  lines. 

I  had  reached  Nome  at  a  fortunate  time  for  my 
work.  Here  were  assembled  Eskimos  from  all  parts 
of  Alaska;  the  entire  population  of  King  Island,  the 
so-called  UHtivangmiirf,  the  inland  IMdmos  from 
Seward  Pfeoinsttla,  tbe  Qavjasamitft,  the  longing- 
from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  tiie  Ungaterdler- 


342          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

mint  from  Norton  Sound  and  the  mouth  of  the 
Yukon,  the  Siorarmiut  from  St.  Lawrence  Island,  and 
finally,  natives  from  Nunivak  Island.  They  had 
come  in  for  the  tourist  season.  Some  lived  in  gold- 
diggers'  cabins,  but  most  of  them  in  tents,  and  great 
camps  had  sprung  up  at  either  end  of  the  town, 
where  the  Eskimos  worked  away  making  "  curios," 
quaint  carvings  in  walrus  tusk,  a  form  of  industry 
which  might  bring  in  three  to  four  hundred  dollars 
in  the  course  of  one  summer,  enough  to  purchase 
necessaries  for  the  winter  with  which  to  return  home. 
The  streets  were  full  of  Eskimos  trotting  about  on 
business;  they  rarely,  if  ever,  offered  their  wares 
direct  for  sale  in  the  streets,  but  sold  them  to  shop- 
keepers who  retailed  them,  All  were  cleanly  and 
decently  dressed,  kindly  and  respectful  when  spoken 
to,  without  the  least  sign  of  having  become  demoral- 
ized by  life  in  town. 

It  was  a  festive  time  from  first  to  last  at  Nome;  an 
ugly  little  town,  but  a  town  that  quickly  won  one's 
heart.  It  is  the  threshold  of  Alaska  out  towards 
the  great  adventure  of  the  north,  and  the  people  one 
meets  are  inspired  with  the  same  love  as  we  ourselves 
for  that  Nature  which  calls  and  enthralls.  No  won- 
der that  one  finds  friends  here.  I  shall  always 
remember  with  especial  gratitude  the  members  of  the 
"  Loiaaaa  dynasty/1  who,  with  the  splendid  old  Judge 
aisd  Ms  wife afctibfcif '.bead,  threw  open  their  charm- 
ing home  to  aH  the  members  of  the  Expedition,  white 
irtagt  and  Eskimo  alike. 

I  calculated  that  I  could  afford  to  spend  a  month 
here,  even  allowing  for  a  visit  to  East  Cape,  as  the 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC  343 

vessel  which  was  to  take  us  down  to  Seattle  would 
not  leave  until  the  end  of  October.  I  had  thus  an 
excellent  opportunity  of  studying  the  various  Alas- 
kan types  without  having  to  travel  in  search  of  them, 
since  they  were  all  assembled  here,  I  have  here 
selected  two  of  the  most  distinctive,  namely,  the 
King  Islanders  of  Bering  Strait,  and  the  natives  of 
Nunivak  Island,  south  of  the  Yukon  delta. 

The  native  myth  regarding  the  origin  of  King 
Island  is  as  follows: 

A  man  from  the  neighborhood  of  Igdlo  came 
rowing  down  the  river  in  his  kayak.  Near  Teller 
he  sighted  a  giant  fish,  which  he  harpooned  with  a 
bird  dart.  The  great  fish  splashed  about  so  violently 
that  the  river  overflowed  its  banks,  forming  the  sheet 
of  water  now  known  as  Imarsuk.  It  then  swam  on 
again,  and  the  man  pursuing  harpooned  it  once 
again,  when  the  creature  in  its  further  struggles 
gave  rise  to  a  new  mmklatiQa,  forming  the  bay  at 
Port  Clarence.  It  tliea  smm  far  out  to  sea,  the 
hunter  followed,  and  at  last  killed  it.  He  then 
cut  a  hole  through  the  snout,  in  ordear  to  fasten  a 
towline,  but  a  great  storm  came  on,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  it.  And  there  it  stayed,  and  turned 
to  stone,  and  became  the  island  of  UMtxvak  (King 
Island).  There  is  a  hole  at  one  eaad  of  the  island, 
cut  right  through  the  rock;  and  that  is  the  hole  which 
the  tr>fl.n  cut  in  the  fish's  snout* 

The  Qavjasamiut  lived  in  the  interior,  some 
way  inland  from  Teller.  In  one  of  their  villages 
there  was  a  girl  who,  being  scolded  by  her  mother, 
ran  a^siy*  and  leaping  on  to  an  ice  floe,  was  carried 
out  to  sea,  a^Iai^edoaEiag  Island.  Siiewastiie 
first  human  being  to  kad  there,  and  kept  herself 
alive  by  magic;  afterwards,  others  came  over  from 


344          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

the  mainland,  and  a  great  village  was  formed.  But 
the  island  was  steep,  and  there  were  no  valleys 
where  houses  could  be  built  in  the  ordinary  way; 
they  had  theref  ore  to  be  set  up  on  wooden  supports 
on  the  steep  rocky  slopes.  It  was  very  cold  here, 
with  a  constant  wind,  and  the  houses  were  built  with 
three  walls  all  round;  first  of  driftwood,  then  a  cover- 
ing of  hay,  and  over  all  a  thick  outer  layer  of  walrus 
hides. 

Thus  the  native  account  of  King  Island,  its  origin 
and  colonization. 

It  is  beyond  question,  the  most  inhospitable  island 
I  have  ever  seen;  some  3-4  km.  long  by  2-3  across, 
with  steep  rocky  sides  all  round.  In  calm  weather 
it  is  generally  wrapped  in  fog;  and  when  clear,  har- 
ried by  fierce  winds,  with  a  heavy  swell  that  makes 
landing  difficult  among  the  broken  rocks  and  churn- 
ing waters  at  the  foot  of  the  cliffs*  For  a  great  part 
of  the  winter  the  place  is  cut  off  from  the  mainland 
altogether.  When  I  visited  the  island,  it  was  deserted 
for  the  time  being,  the  entire  population  having  gone 
in  to  Nome,  We  -managed  to  land,  in  a  small  boat; 
and  certainly  it  was  worth  a  visit.  It  was  like  climb- 
ing up  a  bird  cliff .  The  houses  stood  on  piles  lean- 
ing over  the  precipice;  here  and  there,  in  the  more 
exposed  parts,  the  buildings  were  "moored"  to  the 
roc^itsetf  with  topes  of  plaited  walrus  hide.  Ropes 
^^  ^§t^^;^solr^  points  on  the  shore  up  to 
the  jbouses,  as  aa  aid  to  the  ascent.  Here  and 
there  one  saw  flat  spaces  under  the  houses  them- 
selves, where  the  rock  had  been  levelled  to  make  a 
playground  for  the  children. 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC   345 

There  was  a  notice  board  on  the  island,  stuck  tip 
between  a  couple  of  boulders,  with  the  following 
announcement  in  a  flourishing  hand: 

NOTICE 

All  property  on  this  Island  belongs  to  the  Eskimo. 
Do  not  take  or  disturb  anything.  Failure  to  com- 
ply will  result  in  arrest  and  prosecution. 

AVLAQANA, 

Chief ,  King  Island. 

The  King  Islanders  are  zealous  Catholics,  and 
generally  visit  the  Catholic  Mission  station  at  Nome 
during  the  summer.  They  are  not  only  regular 
church-goers,  but  send  their  children  to  school  as 
far  as  they  are  able,  while  the  little  ernes  themselves 
are  keenly,  interested  in  their  lessons.  Unfortu- 
nately, there  is  not  a  sbgle  spot  on  the  island  where 
a  school  could  be  built.  The  Board  of  Education 
therefore  proposed,  some  years  back,  to  shift  tibe 
entire  population  to  St.  Lawrence  Island,  where 
there  is  level  ground  and  fertile  soil;  and  as  an 
inducement,  each  family  was  offered  a  two-years1 
supply  of  provisions,  with  special  facilities  f or  acquir- 
ing tame  reindeer.  They  were  Hr»ited  to  hold  a 
Tweeting,  presided  over  by  their  dhief ,  and  were  given 
time  to  consider  the  matter.  It  took  them  very 
little  time,  however,  to  decide;  not  a  single  family 
WOT$4  feave  the  naked  rock  they  called  their  home; 
to  gfata,;  ft^ias  tbe^feiest  spot  in  the  world* 

These  Kftig  j^de^  are  f or  the  most  past  tall 
and  well  fosift  according  to  Eskimo  staadaads;  they 
are,  moreover,  particularly  neat  and  orderly  with 


346          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

their  gear.  Their  skin  boats,  kayaks,  harpoons,  and 
implements  generally  are  the  most  handsomely 
worked  in  Alaska,  and  they  have  nearly  always  a 
full  store  of  meat  in  reserve  for  the  winter.  Close 
to  the  village  is  a  cave  thirty  metres  deep,  where 
meat  will  keep  frozen  all  through  the  summer;  it  is 
entered  through  a  narrow  passage,  and  great  torches 
have  to  be  carried,  as  it  is  perfectly  dark  inside. 
Joints  and  carcases  are  marked  with  their  owner's 
mark,  the  one  store-chamber  serving  for  all. 

Their  names  for  the  different  months  of  the  year 
give  an  idea  as  to  their  manner  of  life. 

October  is  the  month  of  thin  ice.  Winter  is 
approaching,  and  those  who  have  been  over  to  the 
mainland  hurry  back  to  set  their  house  in  order. 
The  weather  is  unreliable,  and  it  is  dangerous  to 
venture  far  out  to  sea.  There  is  little  hunting  of 
seal  or  walrus,  but  fishing  is  carried  on,  mostly  for 
small  cod. 

November  is  the  hill-climbing  month.  The  houses 
are  built  on  the  south  side  of  the  island,  where  there 
is  now  open  water  and  very  rough  seas.  The  prev- 
alent north  wind,  however,  drives  the  ice  in  on  the 
north  shore;  seal  and  walrus  assemble  there,  and  the 
villagers  "climb  the  hill"  to  descend  and  go  hunt- 
ing on  the  opposite  side.  The  yield,  however,  is 
bat  poor  at  this  season. 

December  is  tfae-d&nce  month.  Weather  stormy, 
and  days  too  short  for  much,  to  be  done  in  the  way 
of  hunting;  there  is,  however,  generally  a  plentiful 
supply  of  meat  in  reserve,  and  the  dark  stormy  days 
are  passed  in  feasting. 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC  347 

January  is  the  turning  month,  when  the  sun  turns 
on  its  journey  and  begins  to  rise  again.  Light  re- 
turns, the  Strait  is  filled  with  ice  and  hunting  com- 
mences on  the  north  side  of  the  island. 

February  is  young-seal  month.  The  seal  are  now 
heavy  with  young  and  are  caught  at  the  breathing 
holes  and  patches  of  open  water.  Sometimes  the 
ice  is  firm  enough  for  the  islanders  to  cross  to  the 
mainland. 

March  is  preparation  month.  Larger  spaces  of 
open  water  appear,  the  ice  breaks  adrift  and  kayaks 
and  implements  are  made  ready  for  use. 

April  is  the  month  of  getting  out  kayaks  again. 
Winter  hunting  has  now  ceased  altogether,  the  ice 
scatters,  and  the  walrus  begin  to  make  their  appear- 
ance. Seal  and  ribbon  seal  are  harpooned  from  the 
kayak.  This  is  the  commencement  of  the  spring 
season. 

May  is  the  month  of  flowing  stoeams.  Usegtouacl 
is  now  clear  of  snow  and  the  earth  "comes  alive." 
Hunting  in  kayaks  is  continued  ainong  the  drifting  ice. 

June  is  the  month  of  light  nights;  game  is  abun- 
dant, and  hunting  is  carried  on  by  night  and  day* 

July  is  the  month  of  sleeping  walrus,  when  the 
anjmA.k  gather  in  great  numbers  on  the  ice  and  sleep 
in  the  sun,  being  thai  easily  harpooned.  During 
this  and  the  following  month  most  of  the  winter's 
store  of  «eat  is  procured. 

August  m  the  moirtii  of  fledglings.  Seabirds  are 
now  caugbt  in  gf§a&  iirafeeis;  many  of  tlie  islasklei<st 
however,  prefer  to  go  faartib&r  afield,  catching  mar- 
mots for  fur  or  gathering  belies. 


348          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

September  is  sldn-forming  month, — i.e.,  when  the 
velvet  begins  to  form  on  the  antlers  of  the  reindeer. 
In  earlier  times,  the  islanders  went  over  at  this  sea- 
son to  the  mainland,  hunting  caribou;  now,  however, 
they  buy  skins  of  tame  reindeer  from  the  owners  of 
herds,  and  sell  carvings  and  curios  made  during 
winter  to  the  tourists  at  Nome. 

The  King  Islanders  are  remarkably  adapted  to  the 
harsh  conditions  under  which  they  live,  on  a  barren 
rock  in  the  middle  of  the  Bering  Strait.  They  are 
hardy  and  always  in  training,  frugal  and  industri- 
ous, obstinate  and  independent  in  character,  and 
holding  fast,  despite  their  conversion  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith,  to  many  of  their  ancient  festivals, 
stories  and  songs.  In  their  isolated  position,  with 
the  monotony  of  winter  on  their  little  island,  they 
naturally  seek  such  diversion  as  can  be  found.  Occa- 
sionally, in  summer,  several  villages  will  hold  great 
song  festivals  just  as  in  the  old  days;  and  the  King 
Islanders  are  famous  for  their  dancing.  There  are 
a  couple  of  dance  houses  in  their  village  which  appear 
to  be  of  very  ancient  date.  They  are  altogether 
overgrown  with  grass,  which  is  so  astonishingly  lux- 
uriant that  it  has  almost  filled  up  the  chasm  in  which 
these  two  buildings  are  stuck  like  fantastic  birds' 
sesta  I  clambered  up  into  one  of  them  and  wormed 
my  TOJ  tifaoiigh  the  six  metres  of  entrance  tunnel 
fomlt  of  stones  and  earth;  the  place  was  hung  abottt 
with  tambowin^  and  weird,  staring  masks— more 
Eke  a  temple  erf  the  spirits  than  adance  house.  Un- 
fortttnately,  there  was  no  one  on  the  island  at  the 
time  of  my  visit,  and  I  had  to  be  content  with  mak- 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC  349 

ing  the  acquaintance  of  the  islanders  in  the  picture- 
drome  at  Nome,  where  I  found  them  wondering  at 
the  coldly  impersonal  manner  in  which  white  men 
go  to  their  "festivals/' 

The  Eskimos  from  the  south  and  west  of  the  Yukon 
spoke  a  dialect  differing  so  considerably  from  the 
others  that  I  found  it,  contrary  to  all  previous  exper- 
ience, impossible  to  discuss  difficult  questions  such 
as  matters  of  faith  and  ceremonial,  without  the  aid 
of  an  interpreter.  I  was  fortunate  in  finding  an 
excellent  helper  in  the  person  of  one  Paul  Ivanoff, 
a  half-bred  Eskimo,  from  St.  Michael,  who  had 
also  lived  several  years  on  Nunivak  Island.  I 
understood  his  speech  without  the  slightest  difficulty, 
while  he  also  spoke  the  southern  dialect,  which  is 
more  or  less  the  same  throughout  the  whole  range 
of  country  down  to  Ktiskokwim  and  Bristol  Bay. 

One  might  expect  to  find  the  E^doaos  soiQ&e  civil- 
ized farther  to  the  sotith;  this  however  is  not  the 
case.  The  Nunivak  Islanders  occupy  a  poor  ami 
barren  country  with  day  soil,  round  the  deltas  of 
the  great  rivers;  there  is  nothing  here  to  attract 
the  white  man.  No  gold,  no  furs  to  speak  of;  the 
natives  live  mainly  on  seal  and  fish.  Navigation  is 
difficult  along  the  coast  here,  owing  to  frequent 
storms,  shallow  water  and  lack  of  harbors,  so  that 
the  pfeopfe  lie^e  have  remained  practically  cut  off 
from,  tfee  development  of  the  rest  of  Alaska.  CMy 
recently  lias  Italtaieatttcf  Iducatkm  began  to  set 
up  schools  in  this  region,  but  in  most  places  the 
natives  are  still  heathen,  cannot  *ead,  or  even  speak 


350          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

English.  They  were  thus  peculiarly  interesting  from 
my  point  of  view,  and  I  was  able  to  procure  a  great 
deal  of  information  as  to  their  customs  and  cere- 
monies, in  which  a  marked  Indian  influence  is  appar- 
ent. A  notable  feature  in  this  respect  is  their  use 
of  masks,  in  which  the  spirit  element  is  developed  to  a 
degree  far  exceeding  that  noted  under  Point  Hope. 
There  is  still  a  belief  in  the  very  slight  distinction 
between  the  animals  and  man,  and  the  power  of 
animals  to  take  human  form;  hence  many  of  the 
masks  represent  seal,  or  birds,  or  beasts  of  preyf 
with  human  faces.  Each  type  is  credited  with  some 
particular  power,  and  serves  to  assist  the  augakoq 
in  his  invocation  of  helping  spirits  which  here  as 
elsewhere  are  the  mediators  between  life  and  the 
supernatural. 

Despite  the  miserable  country  and  climate  in 
which  they  live,  the  natives  here  have  by  no  means 
lost  their  capacity  for  festival  entertainments;  on 
the  contrary,  we  find  here  some  of  the  prettiest  cere- 
monies in  use.  When  a  child  is  born,  the  parents 
give  a  great  feast  to  all  those  from  some  distance 
round,  and  old  men  and  women  are  given  gifts  by 
the  mother,  according  to  her  wealth  and  position. 
Every  husband  is  expected  to  lay  in  a  store  of  costly 
£ ttrs,  garments  and  finely  worked  weapons  and  imple- 
to fegiveii  away  at  tfae  birth  feast;  the  birth 
diicl:s  ooi^iefed  so  great  a  blessing  that  a 
may  well  give  away  aH  he  possesses. 

Similar  f easts  are  held  for  the  dead,  with  a  view 
to  preparing  the  way  for  them  and  Tpfrfrmg  them 
bappy  in  the  world  beyond  The  ceremonies  here 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC  351 

last  a  week,  with  various  rites  each  day,  and  costly 
gifts  to  all  present.  As  a  rule  several  families  com- 
bine in  a  festival  for  their  respective  dead,  but  even 
then  the  proceedings  may  be  so  expensive  that  sev- 
eral years  of  saving  may  be  required  to  defray  the 
cost  of  a  feast  worthy  of  the  standing  of  the  deceased. 

The  frail  kayak  to  which  the  hunter  trusts  him- 
self on  the  sea  is  built  with  great  ceremony,  special 
rites  being  designed  to  ensure  safety  and  good  httnt- 
ing.  The  kayak  is  generally  renewed  each  year,  as 
it  is  considered  unpropitious  to  enter  on  a  new  hunt- 
ing season  with  old  gear  of  any  sort.  During  the 
time  when  a  maa  is  engaged  on  the  building  of  a 
kayak  he  does  not  enter  the  women's  house,  but 
remains  isolated  in  the  dance  house,  which  is  also 
the  men's  workshop-  Work  must  be  done  fasting, 
no  food  bemg  taken  until  the  evening,  when  the 
day's  work  is  done.  AM  lias  to  be  doo£  slowly  and 
carefully,  with  the  obsecvaaee  of  rv®$mm  fomis  of 
tabu.  When  it  is  finished,  the  kayak  Is  consecrated 
on  the  first  fine  day  when  the  sea  is  calm*  Tbe 
whole  family  will  appear  in  new  dothes,  maa,  wife 
and  boys  —  girls  are  considered  tmdean.  The  kayak 
is  set  on  the  ground  with  all  the  new  implements 
decoratrvely  arranged  in  place.  Hie  ceremony  takes 
place  at  dawn;  the  man  walks  in  front  holding  a 
lighted  lamp,  aad  aH  step  round  the  kayak,  the  idea 
bdjiig  t&at  the  flame  scares  away  all  evil  spirits. 
Tbe  m®&  than  ^ttets  tibeee  words: 

"  May  we 


procuring  food." 
Then  he  goes  out  Irirfttb^  aod  t&i  day  he  brings 


352  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

home  his  first  seal,  with  the  new  kayak,  his  wife 
loads  up  a  little  sledge  with  good  food,  fish,  game  and 
seal  meat,  and  drives  from  house  to  house,  giving 
gifts  to  all  widows  and  fatherless  children. 

Thus  gratitude  should  be  shown  for  the  blessing 
of  daily  food. 

Every  autumn  a  great  festival  is  held  in  honor 
of  the  ribbon  seal,  which  is  an  important  factor  in 
their  life.  The  strange  ceremonies  here  in  use 
reveal  the  fundamental  elements  of  that  religious 
belief  which  we  find  among  the  Eskimos  far  to  the 
east,  in  connection  with  preparation  for  winter  work 
and  the  making  of  new  clothes  for  the  coming  year, 
where  strict  rules  of  tabu  must  be  observed. 

The  preparations  for  the  festival  begin  in  Novem- 
ber and  last  a  whole  month.  During  this  time  the 
men  must  live  apart  from  the  women,  remaining  in 
the  dance  house,  which  their  wives  are  only  allowed 
to  enter  when  bringing  their  food.  The  women, 
who  are  regarded  as  unclean  in  connection  with  all 
animals  hunted,  must  take  a  batH  every  morning 
before  carrying  food  to  their  husbands,  and  when  so 
visiting  them,  must  wear  the  waterproof  garments 
used  in  stormy  weather. 

Every  festival  begins  with  new  songs  competed 
by  tfefe  men,  a  kind  of  hymas  invoking  the  spirits, 
me&  $»1  xirqmea  sbgbg  aad  daadng  together. 
WMMiiiia^^i^ €s®«posjBg  these  hymns,  all  lamps 
most  be  put  out,  aacl  ail  mtist  be  silent  in  the  dance 
houses  with  nothiog  to  disturb  them*  All  males 
saust  be  present,  even  the  smallest  boys,  so  long  as 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC  353 

siluni,  or  time  of  waiting  for  something  to  break;  for 
it  is  held  that  in  the  silence  and  darkness,  when  all 
are  striving  to  think  only  noble  thoughts,  the  songs 
are  born  in  the  minds  of  men  as  bubbles  rising  from 
the  depths  of  the  sea  to  break  on  the  surface.  The 
song  is  a  sacred  thing,  and  silence  is  needed  for  its 
birth. 
Here  is  one  of  the  songs: 

The  autumn  comes  blowing; 

Ah,  I  tremble,  I  tremble  at  the  harsh  northern  wind 

That  strikes  me  pitilessly  in  its  might 

While  the  waves  threaten  to  upset  my  kayak. 

The  autumn  comes  blowing; 

Ah,  I  tremble,  I  tremble  lest  the  storm  and  the  seas 

Sand  me  down  to  the  clammy  ooze  in  the  depths  of  the 

waters. 

Rarely  I  see  the  water  calm, 
The  waves  cast  me  about; 
And  I  tremble,  I  tremble  at  thought  of  the  hour 
When  the  gulls  shall  hack  at  my  dead  body. 

As  soon  as  a  song  has  been  made  it  must  be  sung, 
and  the  women  are  called  in  to  learn  it  with  the 
rest.  The  making  of  songs,  and  dancing,  must  ady 
be  done  in  the  evening;  in  the  daytime,  all  are  tmsy 
with  other  things;  the  women  sewing,  the  men  carv- 
ing selected  pieces  of  driftwood  into  various  imple- 
ments and  utensils  for  the  winter;  large  handsome 
vessels  for  water,  drinking  bowls  and  ladles,  meat 
dishes  and  the  like,  so  that  each  fairly  has  its  own 
new  set  of  requis&es.  Whm  the  mm  and  women 
have  finished  their  respective  tasks,  the  angakoq 


354          -4 CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

is  invited  to  call  upon  his  helping  spirits.  He  appears 
in  new  winter  boots  and  creaking  waterproof  skins, 
and  sits  down  in  the  middle  of  the  floor.  A  line  is 
brought  out  and  a  noose  laid  round  his  neck,  four 
Boen  hauling  at  each  end  of  the  rope,  yet  he  utters 
his  warnings  and  prophecies  in  a  clear  voice,  despite 
the  fact  that  he  is  apparently  being  strangled. 
Thus,  almost  hanging  by  the  neck  from  the  rope,  he 
invokes  the  various  animals,  and  informs  the  com- 
pany when  the  winter  hunting  can  begin. 

As  soon  as  this  is  over,  the  floor  boards  are  moved 
away  from  the  dance  house,  and  a  fire  is  lit  in  the 
space  beneath.  All  vessels,  marked  with  the  owners' 
respective  marks,  must  now  be  exposed  to  the  heat 
of  the  fire,  the  men  at  the  same  time  purifying  them- 
selves by  a  perspiration  cure.  The  window  in  the 
roof  is  removed,  the  smoke  escaping  from  the  open- 
ing, yet  so  fierce  is  the  heat  that  the  men  are  dripping 
with  sweat.  Finally,  they  wash  in  cold  water,  This 
concludes  the  preparations  for  the  great  feast. 

The  feast  itself  lasts  eight  days.  During  the  past 
year,  the  bladders  of  all  ribbon  seals  caught  have 
been  carefully  preserved,  and  these  are  now  brought 
in  to  the  dance  house,  hung  up  with  bundles  of  herbs 
under  the  roof,  where  a  harpoon  and  line  are  also 
fixed,  with  a  small  lamp  lighted  beneath  them. 
IJieaai  witfe  great  solemnity  the  new  clothes  are  put 
^aM4jie$^  haaded  round  to  their  respec- 

tive 0w®e$s.  Hie  women  are  called  in,  and  feasts 
are  held  every  dayt  ending  with  "song  and  dance. 
At  last,  the  seals'  bladders  are  dropped  into  the  sea 
&iaugfa  a  hole  in  the  ice,  while  the  angakoqs  implore 


CLIFF-DWELLERS  OF  THE  ARCTIC   355 

the  animals  to  be  generous  to  men-  On  the  eighth 
evening,  men  and  women  exchange  gifts,  and  prom- 
ise to  try  their  best  in  the  coming  winter  to  be  better 
in  conduct  and  in  their  respective  tasks. 

The  festival  ends,  as  it  began,  in  deep  silence,  the 
silence  of  good  wishes  and  good  resolutions. 

And  then  the  winter  hunting  can  begin. 

Here  I  conclude  this  description  of  the  Alaskan 
Eskimos.  .  *  .  They  number  a  little  more  than 
the  Greenlanders,  or  about  14,000.  The  total  num- 
ber of  the  Eskimos  is  thus  distributed  approximately 
as  follows:  Greenland  about  13,000,  Canada  about 
5,000,  Siberia  about  1200— total  thus  about  34,000. 

In  material  respects,  the  culture  of  the  Alaskan 
Eskimos  resembles  more  or  less  that  of  the  natives  of 
Point  Barrow,  Point  Hope  and  on  the  great  rivers 
up  inland,  as  already  described.  There  were  of  course 
adaptations  to  local  conditions,  but  in  the  main,  the 
old  principles  were  followed  throughout.  Hunting 
on  the  ice  is  in  these  regions,  as  in  the  greater  part 
of  Greenland,  relegated  to  a  secondary  pla^e,  and 
we  naturally  find  it  most  highly  developed  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  North-west  Passage,  where  it 
remains  the  only  form  of  seal  hunting.  The  netting 
of  seal,  however,  unknown  farther  to  the  east,  is  an 
important  feature;  even  to  this  day  nets  are  made 
from  thin  strips  of  sealskin  and  placed  in  narrow 
openings  of  the  level  ice  near  open  water.  But 
hunting  at  sea  is  the  staple  form,  and  is  carried  to  a 
high  degree  of  perfection.  The  Eskimo  methods 
were  doubtless  developed  on  the  shores  of  the  Ber- 


356  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

ing  Sea,  but  whether  this  was  due  to  the  natives 
alone  or  aided  by  alien  influence,  cannot  be  deter- 
mined with  certainty. 

The  southern  territorial  limit  of  the  Eskimos  at 
present  is  on  the  east  coast  of  Bristol  Bay  and  at 
Kodiak  in  the  Pacific,  formerly,  however,  they  ex- 
tended as  far  as  Prince  of  Wales'  Sound  and  the  coasts 
immediately  to  the  southeast.  Here  lived  also  the 
northernmost  tribes  of  the  North-west  Indians,  the 
Tlingit,  and  the  Eskimos  here  encountered  a  highly 
developed  culture  based  on  the  same  forms  of  hunt- 
ing as  their  own.  It  is  always  possible  that  they 
may  have  learned  something  from  their  neighbors. 
This  is  certainly  the  case  as  regards  some  of  their 
legends,  especially  the  raven  myths;  also  the  cult  of 
masks  and  the  complicated  ceremonial  at  their  fes- 
tivals. It  is  at  any  rate  characteristic  that  these 
particular  customs  should  have  attained  their  high- 
est development  in  these  southern  regions. 

It  is  a  consolation  to  every  explorer  that  even  the 
most  comprehensive  expedition  never  comes  to  an 
end,  but  by  its  researches  opens  the  way  for  further 
work.  It  lies  then  with  the  future  to  investigate 
more  closely  the  problems  thus  raised. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST 

TV7HILE  flying  before  the  gale  on  board  the  Sifaer 
"  Wave,  just  off  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  we  sighted 
a  little  flotilla  of  quaint  looking  skirt  boats  that  came 
dancing  over  the  choppy  waters  of  the  Bering  Strait, 
Hie  sails  were  so  close-reefed  that  the  wind  had  but 
the  merest  rags  to  catch  hold  of,  but  the  boats  were 
heavy  laden,  and  tore  through  the  waves  like  so 
many  flapping  seabirds. 

It  was  a  party  of  Siberian  Eskimos  from  East 
Cape,  on  their  way  home  feom  Teller,  where  they 
had  been  to  trade.  It  was  a  hurried  meeting,  but 
thrilling  in  its  way,  and  left  me  more  than  ever 
keen  to  visit  these  people  on  their  own  ground.  In 
the  extreme  eastern  corner  of  Siberia  Eve  the  most 
westerly  of  all  the  Eskimos,  and  here  surely  was  the 
most  fitting  point  at  which  to  end  the  Expedition, 

Before  landing  anywhere  in  Siberia,  it  was  neces- 
sary, I  knew,  to  have  a  passport  issued  by  the  Cen- 
teal  Office  of  the  Soviet  Government  in  Moscow.  I 
bad  no  such  pass,  for  reasons  which  will  appear 
Iaf$r  %*su  ^1  ipas  therefore  prepared  to  meet  with 
some  difficult^,  but  my  *>wn  keen  interest  in  the  task 
led  me  to  imagine  that  my  reasons  must  appear 
sound  enotigh  to  anyoee,  Tb&  obstacles  to  be  reek- 

357 


358  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

oned  with  arose  from  causes  which  had  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  my  own  work  and  aims.  In  the  first 
place,  relations  between  the  Soviet  Republic  and 
America  were  generally  strained,  and  secondly  there 
was  a  particular  cause  of  dispute .  just  now  in  the 
matter  of  certain  small  schooners  which  had  for 
generations  past  traded  with  Siberia  under  the 
United  States  flag,  and  now  wished  to  continue 
without  paying  for  the  license  which  the  new  govern- 
ment not  unreasonably  demanded. 

There  were  two  ways  of  crossing  Bering  Strait. 
I  could  go  in  an  Eskimo  boat.  This  would  be,  to  me, 
the  easiest  and  simplest  way  of  accomplishing  my 
errand;  but  there  was  this  disadvantage  attached  to 
it,  that  the  native  skin  boats  can  only  cross  with  a 
certain  wind,  and  I  might  have  to  wait  some  time 
for  it.  And  I  had  no  time  to  spare.  Also,  in  the 
event  of  any  collision  with  the  authorities  on  the 
other  side,  I  should  be  alone,  and  at  the  mercy  of 
any  arbitrary  official. 

The  other  way  was  to  charter  a  schooner.  I  should 
then  have  the  advantage  of  being  in  company  with 
other  white  men;  on  the  other  hand,  it  might  preju- 
dice my  case  if  I  were  to  arrive  in  one  of  those  very- 
vessels  which  were  the  subject  of  dispute. 

Anyhow,  the  crossing  must  be  made  somehow, 
mtfeiaiely,  I  chartered  a  small  schooner,  the  Teddy 
Bmfi  captain  and  ow&er  Joe  Bernard,  a  well  known 
and  respected  personalty  in  these  waters.  I  had 
at  once,  on  getting  into  touch  with  the  wireless  at 
Kotzebue,  sent  off  a  message  asking  for  permission 
to  land  from  the  Soviet  Government,  but  after 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST    359 

waiting  three  weeks  I  was  forced  to  start  without 
it,  as  otherwise  the  season  would  have  been  too  far 
advanced  to  cross  at  all. 

Bering  Strait  is  one  of  the  most  treacherous  waters 
in  the  world,  gale  follows  gale  almost  incessantly,  and 
in  this  part  of  Alaska  there  are  practically  no  har- 
bors in  which  one  can  seek  refuge.  We  started  on 
the  8th  of  September,  and  had  a  stormy  week  to 
start  with,  which  forced  us  to  seek  the  shelter  of  small 
islands  and  headlands  here  and  thane,  shifting  our 
refuges  from  time  to  time  as  the  wind  changed  about, 
and  in  daily  peril  of  being  carried  out  into  the  still 
more  dreaded  Bering  Sea.  At  last,  on  the  i6th, 
about  noon,  the  weather  began  to  dear,  and  that 
evening,  in  the  dark,  we  passed  Cape  Prince  of 
Wales.  From  here,  our  course  lay  past  Diomede 
Island  over  to  East  Cape  itself.  We  came  from 
Teller,  aad  rounded  the  steep  black  cliffs  in  fine 
weather;  the  summits  stood  right  up  among  the 
clouds,  and  there  was  a  mighty  wash  of  breakers  at 
the  foot .  At  the  extreme  limit  of  the  land,  on  a  piece 
of  level  ground,  was  an  Eskimo  encampment.  We 
heard  women  laughing,  dogs  barking,  and  children 
at  play,  but  saw  only  a  duster  of  lighted  gutskin 
windows,  the  only  visible  slga  of  human  habitation. 

I  was  tired  out  after  the  restless  threshing  about  of 
those  stormy  days,  and  turned  in  early  that  night, 
at  dawu,  Captain  Bernard  came 
;  we  were  nearing  Diomede  Island, 
I  tamed  oofc  at  «»P0;  ifc  was  still  barely  Kgfet  asd  I 
could  just  make  out  a  great  dark  mass  rising  sbeer 
and  inhospitable  from  the  sea,  with  thousands  of 


36o          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

seabirds  wheeling  and  screaming  over  the  cliffs,  while 
the  water  broke  in  a  scurry  of  foam  on  the  rocks 
below.  And  this  was  fair  weather — what  would  it 
look  like  in  a  storm?  Yet  the  place  was  inhabited, 
though  it  looked  like  a  bird  cliff  and  nothing  more. 
We  made  in  towards  the  headland,  intending  to 
anchor,  but  just  then  a  mass  of  fog  came  up,  and  the 
island  vanished  as  suddenly  as  it  had  appeared. 
We  gave  up  the  idea  of  a  visit  for  the  time  being,  and 
made  straight  for  East  Cape, 

Towards  noon  the  fog  lifted,  and  we  sighted  a  for- 
bidding rocky  coast  with  snowclad  hills  rising  from 
the  sea.  There  was  a  desperate  loneliness  in  the 
bare  look  of  that  land;  a  fitting  aspect  for  the  utmost 
verge  of  a  continent.  Masses  of  drift  ice  lay  spread 
along  the  shore;  the  place  looked  desolate  and  far 
from  any  recognized  route  to  anywhere.  It  was 
almost  a  shock  to  perceive  a  big  steamer  maMng 
straight  towards  us.  The  vessel  was  a  patrol  boat, 
and  we  were  soon  aware  that  the  Soviet  was  keeping 
guard  over  its  farthest  frontiers.  We  hoisted  the 
Danish  flag,  and  the  big  boat  seemed  to  peer  inquis- 
itively, only  to  turn  its  back  on  us  next  moment  as 
if  disdaining  to  approach  anything  so  insignificant. 

The  ice  almost  hides  the  Eskimo  village  from  view, 
and  we  can  barely  make  it  out.  Anyhow,  there  is 
no  shelter  here,,  so  we  sha|>e  our  course  for  Emma- 
town,  seme  miles  Jarther  south.  Captain  Bernard, 
aa  experienced  navigator,  knows  that  the  coast  there 
will  be  dear  of  ice  with  this  wind,  and  give  us  anchor- 
age under  shelter  of  a  spit  of  laa<L  There  is  a  small 
township  there  consisting  of  a  few  TchtikcM  families, 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        361 

some  traders,  and  the  Soviet  representative.  We  are 
not  particularly  anxious  to  run  right  into  the  arms 
of  the  frontier  poEce,  but  we  shall  have  to  meet  them 
sooner  or  later. 

We  came  sailing  in  with  the  Danish  flag  flying,  and 
at  once  the  red  flags  of  the  Republic  were  hoisted 
on  shore.  I  am  not  sure  that  they  had  seen  the  white 
cross  in  ours.  Captain  Bernard  and  I  were  both 
pretty  certain  we  were  in  for  a  trying  day ,  andaccoid- 
ingly,  had  a  good  meal  before  going  on  shore.  At 
last  we  got  the  dinghy  out,  and  rowed  to  land,  where 
we  were  met  by  a  well  known  trader  named  Charley 
Carpe&dale,  who  has  lived  here  for  a  generation, 
He  at  once  introduced  us  to  a  giant  of  a  man,  whose 
height  was  further  accentuated  by  a  tall  fur  cap;  this 
is  the  frontier  guard,  AUayefL  We  shook  hands, 
and  I  found  myself  looking  into  a  pair  of  very 
friendly  eyes;  btrfc  there  was  a  hint  of  obstinacy 
about  the  mouth  that  I  feared  might  meaa  trouble. 
We  found  here  also  a  Russian-English  interpreter 
named  Leo,  and  some  traders  from  the  recently 
established  Soviet  store. 

We  had  hardly  got  our  boat  hauled  up  on  shore 
before  AHayeff  requested  us  to  accompany  httn  to 
the  police  station.  Here,  with  the  energetic  assist- 
ance of  Bernard,  I  endeavored  to  explain  my 
errand,  and  the  reason  for  my  having  no  passport, 
a£  ffefe  same  time  requesting  permission  to  stay  for  a 
m&s^m&®&ji tibe 'Eskimos  of  East  Cape.  I  prom- 
ised, of  eottrs^M^i^tmdingshotild  take  place  with 
the  natives. 

AHayeff  declared  that  he  had  no  authority  to  give 


362          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

me  any  such  permission,  and  that  if  we  did  not  put 
to  sea  again  at  once  he  would  be  obliged  to  send  me 
under  escort  to  the  Governor  at  Wahlen.  I  recog- 
nized that  this  would  at  least  prolong  my  stay  in  the 
country,  and  add  to  my  chance  of  obtaining  what  I 
wanted;  accordingly,  I  declared  my  willingness  to 
make  the  journey. 

I  was  then  led  over  to  the  Tchukchi  village,  where 
a  team  of  twelve  dogs  was  in  readiness.  I  had  barely 
time  to  glance  at  the  place.  It  was  at  once  evident 
that  these  were  people  of  a  different  type  from  the 
cheery,  noisy  Eskimos,  These  men  looked  seri- 
ous, and  from  their  expression,  appeared  to  regard 
me  as  some  dangerous  criminal.  Curious  types 
there  were  among  them,  but  all  looked  poor  and  ill 
cared  for.  Women  came  out  from  the  big  dome- 
shaped  walrus  hide  tents  and  stared  curiously  at 
our  party;  they  were  not  unaccustomed  to  seeing 
people  carried  off  never  to  return.  A  few  dirty 
children  clustered  round  the  sledge. 

All  my  papers  had  been  taken  from  me  and  handed 
to  the  Tdhukchi  who  is  to  take  me  to  the  Governor, 
The  dogs  are  started — a  miserable  team — and  we 
move  slowly  over  the  sodden,  melancholy  tundra. 
Not  a  trace  of  snow  here,  only  swamp  and  water- 
course aad  marsh.  The  only  enlivening  feature  of 
the  landscape  is  the  neck  of  East  Cape  rising  strongly 
ie  t&e  €asfc;  tibe^y  the  first  snow  has  already  fallen 
on  the  heights,  aadL  gleams  encouragingly;  but  for 
tile  rest  there  is  nothing  but  flat  marshland,  mud  and 
mire  and  wet;  and  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  the 
sky  sends  down  a  steady  soaking  drizzle. 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        363 

My  driver  had  his  own  way  of  urging  on  his  team. 
He  carried  a  special  kind  of  harpoon,  with  a  sharp- 
pointed  nail  at  one  end,  which  he  threw  from  time  to 
timeout  among  the  dogs.  At  first  they  stopped  dead; 
then,  with  howls  of  pain,  they  put  on  the  pace  for 
a  few  minutes.  It  was  a  pitiful  proceeding  for  an  ex- 
perienced driver  to  watch;  but  the  man  was  my  jailer 
at  present,  and  all  my  papers  were  in  his  charge,  so 
it  would  hardly  be  wise  to  interfere.  Moreover, 
there  was  no  means  of  making  oneself  understood. 

The  dog-harpoon,  or  flying  whip,  is  furnished  at 
the  kindlier  end  with  a  bunch  of  sted  rings  that 
rattle  when  shaken,  and  the  sound  also  serves  to 
urge  on  the  team  to  fresh  effort;  evidently,  the  poor 
beasts  have  learned  by  experience  what  to  expect  if 
they  fail  to  answer  this  hint.  The  dogs  were  har- 
nessed in  pairs,  and  I  will  in  justice  admit  that  de- 
spite their  slowness,  doubtless  due  to  a  summer  on 
short  commons,  they  were  most  obedient,  After  a 
couple  of  hours'  energetic  persuasion,  they  seemed 
to  think  it  as  well  to  make  an  end  of  the  business, 
and  went  on  at  such  a  pace  that  we  had  to  take  it 
in  turns  to  sit  on  the  sledge. 

I  had  always  wanted  to  visit  Russia,  but  the 
atmosphere  of  this  monotonous  tundra,  the  endless 
.  unchanging  expanse  of  cheerless  waste,  was  hardly 
what  I  had  looked  forward  to.  Moreover,  I  was 
i30fc  a&ogefcfaer  free  from  anxiety  as  to  the  outcome  of 
tfae  iotertiew  awaiting  me.  Nevertheless,  I  was 
convinced  tlia*  I  iiad^Doe  the  right  thing  so  far. 

Some  distance  out  wfe  encountered  another  sledge 
coming  from  the  opposite  direction;  it  proved  to  be  a 


364          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

Tchukchi,  who  spoke  a  few  words  of  English,  and  we 
halted  for  a  few  minutes'  talk.  It  was  an  awkward 
sort  of  conversation,  standing  there  in  the  drizzling 
rain,  shifting  our  feet  continually  to  keep  from  sink- 
ing into  the  mud*  I  could  not  make  out  -my  fellow- 
traveller's  name;  it  sounded  rather  like  the  chatter  of 
a  seagull  as  he  pronounced  it.  He  was  very  inter- 
ested in  my  doings.  Was  I  a  trader?  Had  we  any 
sort  of  goods  on  board  our  ship,  and  would  we  trade 
with  him,  somewhere  out  of  sight  along  the  shore? 

I  explained  that  I  wished  to  conform  to  the  law 
of  the  land,  at  which  he  protested,  urging  that  the 
shops  were  all  empty,  and  one  could  not  even  pur- 
chase ammunition.  To  make  my  own  position 
clearer,  I  told  him  a  little  story  I  had  heard  myself 
regarding  one  .of  the  American  traders  a  few  weeks 
before  our  arrival  at  East  Cape.  He  had  been  in- 
formed, through  one  of  the  Eskimos  on  Diomede 
Island,  that  the  Russian  authorities  had  no  objec- 
tion to  his  landing  at  East  Cape  and  trading  with 
the  natives  there.  Trusting  to  this  safe  conduct, 
he  went  across,  and  started  bartering,  only  to  find 
himself  immediately  seized  and  accused  of  illicit 
trading.  AH  the  ready  cash  on  board  his  vessel, 
some  $2000,  was  confiscated;  the  trader  himseJf 
got  away,  thankful  that  they  had  not  taken  his  ship 
Bat  when  the  Eskimo  intermediary  on 
^^M,lieafd  what  had  happened  to  his 
Mend,  be  crossed  to  the  mainland  himself  to  com- 
plain of  having  been  made  the  instruBae&t  of  a  plot 
ie  "defiance  of  good  faitk  AI  he  got  for  his  pains 
a  fine  of  $25  for  insulting  the  authorities,  and  the 


REPRESENTATIVE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  SOVIET  FROM  EMMATOWN 

He  refused  us  permission  to  land  at  East  Cape  in  Siberia. 


366          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

curious  combination  garments  of  reindeer  skin,  worn 
as  a  rule  with  one  aim  out  of  the  sleeve,  leaving  half 
the  body  naked.  They  were  not  without  a  certain 
ample  grace,  rather  reserved,  and  trying  not  to 
appear  inquisitive.  I  had  not  time  to  study  them 
closely,  however;  an  elderly  man,  broad-shouldered 
and  of  stern  countenance,  stepped  forward  and  I 
braced  myself  to  meet  the  Governor.  As  it  turned 
out,  however,  this  was  only  a  bankrupt  trader— one 
of  the  victims  of  the  new  monopoly.  A  moment 
later  another  Russian  appeared,  dressed  from  head 
to  foot  in  sealskin;  he  introduced  hfangftlf  in  excellent 
English  as  Peter  Cossigan,  trader  and  interpreter. 

Authoritatively  he  waved  the  crowd  aside,  got  my 
papers  from  the  driver,  and  led  the  way  up  to 
Government  House,  where  my  fate  was  to  be  decided. 
On  the  way,  I  managed  hurriedly  to  explain  who  I 
was  and  what  I  wanted.  As  a  sufferer  under  the  pres- 
ent regime,  he  seemed  inclined  to  sympathize  with 
my  position. 

Despite  the  commotion  occasioned  by  our  arrival 
among  the  natives,  none  of  the  Government  officials 
appeared,  and  we  made  our  way  in  to  the  office*  Here 
all  was  wild  disorder,  with  papers  and  documents 
strewn  about  everywhere,  and  a  medley  of  people 
dodging  about  and  getting  in  one  another's  way. 

"Dctiskaya  Ekspeditiya"  is  all  that  I  could  mate  out 
of  what  is  said  in  the  course  of  an  eloquent  speech 
introducing  me  to  the  Governor,  one  Nikolaus  Los- 
seff .  He  wore  a  ragged  old  sweater,  and  his  manners 
were  as  informal  as  his  dress.  Losseff  appeared  to 
be  a  kindly  soul,  personally  most  willing  to  oblige, 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        367 

and  was  deeply  distressed  on  hearing  what  is  the  mat- 
ter. I  was  introduced  to  the  other  officials  present: 
Vassili  Dimitrievitch  Kouslmm,  Chief  of  Police, 
newly  arrived  from  Leningrad;  Peter  Bodrofi,  In- 
spector of  Finances  for  the  Chukotsk  Peninsula,  and 
Police-Constable  Maxim  Penkin,  a  giant  of  a  man, 
who  smiled  with  the  simple  kindliness  of  giants  as  a 
race. 

The  Chief  of  Police  at  once  took  over  all  my 
papers,  including  a  passport  issued  from  Montreal, 
a  letter  of  recxmmendation  from  the  Danish  Lega- 
tion at  Washington,  a  letter  from  the  Danish  Con- 
sul at  Seattle,  and  one  from  the  American  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  strongly  emphasizing  the  purely  sci- 
entific aims  of  the  Expedition.  Unfortunately ,  it  soon 
appeared  that  the  Chief  of  Police  could  not  read  our 
Governor,  who  is  in  no  better  case, 
^>  tbs  office,  to  afl  appearance 
mudi  perttifbadL  M-^b^^p^e|fei^ve  treated  me 
with  the  greatest  courtesy,  altogether  diitereat  from 
what  I  had  expected  of  the  new  Soviet  type;  and 
after  the  exaggerated  inf ormaJity  of  C^adiaa  and 
Americanmanners,  it  was  quite  refreshing  to  see  a  man 
bow,  actually  bow  politely,  when  one  is  introduced. 
A  chair  was  placed  for  me,  and  Russian  cigarettes 
were  offered.  Then  the  negotiations  commenced* 
I  was  no  longer  conscious  of  my  wet  clothes;  my 
one  thought  now  was  for  the  Expedition,  With  the 
aid  of  an  excellent  interpreter,  I  endeavored  to  mafce 
dear  to  them  tfeat  my  object  in  visiting  East  Cape  was 
strictly  and  exdus&ely  scientific,  and  that  thk  was 
abundantly  evident  from  the  papers  I  had  shown 


368  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

them.  With  all  the  energy  at  my  command  I 
that  my  having  no  passport  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
there  was  no  Government  of  Siberia  in  existence  at 
the  time  when  I  started  from  Denmark,  and  that 
the  Governorship  of  Wahlen  was  not  established 
until  a  year  after.  Also  that  I  had  endeavored, 
throtigh  the  nearest  Danish  consulate,  to  get  into 
communication  with  Moscow,  but  in  vain.  And 
finally,  that  after  three  years  of  travelling  from  one 
Eskimo  settlement  to  another,  I  had  arrived  at 
East  Cape  in  order  to  study  the  Eskimos  there,  and 
begged  the  Soviet  authorities  to  accord  me  the  same 
facilities  as  I  had  received  in  Canada  and  America, 
where  an  Expedition  coming  from  the  Arctic  regions 
is  regarded  as  exempt  from  passport  formalities. 

In  vain  the  Governor  tugged  at  his  hair,  went  out 
and  came  in  and  went  out  of  the  room  again,  all  the 
time  hugging  the  one  solid  fact  which  he  seemed 
unable  to  get  over,  namely,  that  I  had  no  passport 
from  the  Supreme  Government  in  Moscow,  and  that 
his  instructions  left  no  margin  for  acting  at  his  own 
discretion.  I  was  further  informed  that  the  great 
concentration  of  officials  was  due  to  the  strained  rela- 
tions existing  between  the  Soviet  and  the  rest  of  the 
world*  and  not  least  the  formal  conflict  regarding  the 
possesskm  of  Wrapgel  Island,  to  which  place  a  war- 
s&ij>  b$d  been  despatched  that  swimer. 

to  be  popular  after  Vilh- 
eaqpkat  in  planting  the  British 


ing  m  Wraagd  Island,  which  the  Russians  regard 
territory,    Eagka4  #eftised  to  recognize 
aad  Stefaassoa  established  a  trad- 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        369 

ing  concern  on  the  island  by  himself,  but  later  ceded 
the  rights  to  a  syndicate  at  Nome,  which  brought 
over  Alaskan  Eskimos  to  the  disputed  colony. 

All  unsuspecting,  I  had  tumbled  innocently  into 
a  political  wasps*  nest,  and  made  the  best  use  of 
such  arguments  as  I  could  find,  pointing  out,  for  in- 
stance, that  it  would  hardly  be  wise  to  turn  away  a 
scientific  expedition  from  Russian  territory  after 
it  has  been  received  with  interest  and  encouragement 
everywhere  else—  especially  just  now,  when  the 
Soviet  should  be  keen  on  showing  the  world  that 
Russia  under  the  new  regime  appreciates  the  value 
of  culture  and  science  generally,  AH,  however, 
apparently  to  no  purpose. 

All  at  once  the  Governor  seemed  to  recollect  that  I 
had  been  travelling  for  some  time;  and  appeared  also 
to  notice  that  I  was  covered  with  mud. 

"Are  you  hungry?"  he  asked  suddenly. 

I  admitted  the  fact.  Whereupon  he  dashed  out 
into  the  kitchen,  to  retttrn  a  moment  later  and  drag 
me  through  with  him.  Two  smiling  Russian  girls 
were  busy  preparing  a  meal,  and  I  passed  them  with  a 
bow,  finding  time  to  notice  their  peculiar  beauty,  the 
white  sldn,  and  their  eyes  with  long  dark 


lashes  that  seemed  fifce  an  expression  of  all  unspoken. 
melancholy  in  the  world.  We  entered  the  dicing 
room,  the  Governor  sat  down  at  table  with  me,  and 
the  women  followed.  One  of  them  was  his  wife,  the 
other  a  yottng  sdK>dims  tress  from  Irkutsk  I  made 
an  attempt  at  conversatkm,  trying  three  languages, 
but  in  vain.  We  turned  ena^ticafly  to  the  dishes 
before  us;  oversweetened  cocoa  and  some  hot,  sweet 


370          A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

preserve  eaten  with  bread;  famished  as  I  was,  it  went 
down  as  meat  with  a  hungry  Eskimo. 

The  dining  room  was  an  apartment  with  bare  walls 
devoid  of  ornament,  perhaps  in  order  to  focus  atten- 
tion the  more  directly  upon  the  Constitution  of  the 
Soviet  Republic,  a  copy  of  which  covered  the  whole  of 
one  wall.  And  also — I  had  almost  forgotten  it — in 
one  corner  a  picture  of  Lenin,  dressed  as  a  simple 
street  scavenger.  I  gazed  at  him,  not  without  bitter 
reproach  at  the  thought  of  his  having  given  this 
otherwise  amiable  Governor  instructions  leaving  no 
room  for  the  slightest  deviation:  the  letter  of  the  law, 
or  off  with  his  head! 

A  moment  later  the  Chief  of  Police  came  in  and 
informed  me  that  I  might  stay  the  night  in  the  Gov- 
ernor's house,  but  must  return  to  my  ship  the  following 
day  and  leave  Siberia  at  once.  Very  sorry,  but  .  .  . 

It  was  goodbye  to  East  Cape. 

I  had  thus  one  evening  and  part  of  the  following 
day  to  work  in,  and  hoped  that  after  all  I  might 
be  able  to  make  some  use  of  my  time.  East  Cape 
was  out  of  reach,  but  there  were  a  few  old  Eskimos 
at  Wahlen  and  at  Emmatown  whom  I  could  talk 
to.  There  were  also  the  Tchukchis;  and  I  had  here 
an  excellent  interpreter  in  the  person  of  Peter  Cos- 
who  spoke  their  language  and  English  with 
The  police  imposed  no  further  restric- 
tions on  my  liberty?  I  was  free  to  go  where  I  pleased 
and  speak  with  whom  I  pleased  during  the  eighteen 
faotes  or  so  that  I  was  stiE  strflered  to  remain  ill 
Sroiet  territory*  :  '  * 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        371 

I  began  by  calling  on  the  traders,  who  were  as- 
sembled in  a  small  house,  and  discussed  with  them 
the  situation  generally.  They  were  all  Russians, 
but  in  spite  of  this,  their  position  was  worse  than  my 
own.  The  Soviet  monopoly  forbade  them  to  trade 
on  their  own  account,  while  at  the  same  time,  the 
government  offered  them  no  other  means  of  making 
a  living,  and  no  opportunity  of  getting  out  of  the 
country.  One  of  these  tmfortunates,  whose  name  I 
will  not  mention,  fumbled  in  an  old  chest  full  of  odd- 
ments, and  pulled  out  a  huge  bundle  of  notes  —  paper 
roubles  from  the  time  of  the  Czars.  These  were  his 
savings;  rouble  on  rouble  hoarded  up  by  years  of 
economy;  and  now,  he  declared,  worth  less  than  so 
much  cigarette  paper* 

I  asked  how  many  there  were* 

"  What  does  it  matter?"  he  answered.  "I  used  to 
know  the  whole  sum  to  a  kopek,  but  now,  I  can- 
not say.  Thirty  thousand,  a  hundred  thousand 
roubles,  it  makes  no  difference  either  way." 

One  old  trader  named  Gobrinoff,  who  had  suffered 
the  same  fate,  burst  out  suddenly  into  a  foolish 
mirthless  laugh,  and  the  rest  of  us  fell  silent. 

These  bankrupt  traders  speak  no  ill  o£  the  Soviet, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they,  like  everyone  else  in 
the  district,  have  to  look  forward  to  a  winter  with- 
out tea  or  coffee,  perhaps  without  tobacco,  though,  as 
tbey  explain  almost  apologetically,  there  will  be 
plenty  oi  wates  meat  and  blubber.  It  is  something 
erf  a  degi2u3a$i«  m  tfeeisr  old  age;  tbey  were  wealthy 
once,  snsesi  c$  (^tiifcetica  in  the  place,  and 


are  now  reduced  to  eating  the  blubber  cf  charity  and 


372  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

seeking  the  warmth  of  the  native  yarrangs  as  soon 
as  the  winter  drives  them  from  their  own  wooden 
huts,  which  they  have  no  fuel  to  make  habitable. 

It  was  not  a  cheerful  party,  and  I  was  glad  to  take 
my  leave  and  go  visiting  with  Peter  Cossigan.  among 
the  natives.  The  information  I  acquired  in  the 
course  of  these  visits,  and  subsequently,  may  be  sum- 
marized as  follows : 

Save  for  the  Governor's  residence  and  a  couple  of 
stores,  Wahlen  consists  exclusively  of  yarrangs — 
huts  of  the  Tchukchi  type — inhabited  by  a  couple  of 
hundred  people,  who  get  their  living  solely  from  the 
sea.  The  Tchukchis,  and  also  the  Eskimos  of  East 
Cape,  still  live  exactly  in  the  same  fashion  as  before 
any  white  men  came  to  their  country.  No  attempt 
at  spiritual  influence  has  ever  been  made.  It  was 
thus  a  magnificent  field  for  ethnographical  research, 
and  one  in  which  I  might  well  have  spent  some 
months.  As  it  was,  I  had  only  a  few  hours,  and  can 
only  give  one  or  two  of  the  main  features. 

Peter  Cossigan,  who  had  himself  married  a  Tchuk- 
chi woman,  led  me  first  of  all  into  one  of  the  largest 
yarrangs.  It  was  a  curious  structure,  half  hut,  half 
tent,  consisting  of  a  heavy  wooden  framework  built 
to  the  shape  of  a  dome,  and  covered  with  walrus 
hide.  We  found  ourselves  at  first  in  a  sort  of  front 
room  which  occupied  about  half  the  entire  space, 
with  a  fireplace  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  on  which 
some  walrus  njeat  was  cooking  at  the  time.  Despite 
a  couple  of  ventilation  holes  in  the  roof,  the  place 
was  so  full  of  smoke  that  it  was  some  little  time 
bdfore  I  made  out  the  figure  of  a  woman  kneeling  by 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        373 

the  fire  and  tending  her  pot.  She  rose  to  her  feet 
with  a  little  laugh,  and  invited  us  to  enter.  I  now 
perceived  that  there  was  a  sma.11  tent  of  reindeer 
skin  hung  up  in  the  interior  of  the  hut,  being  fastened 
by  thongs  to  the  wooden  framework,  but  without 
tent  holes  of  its  own;  this  was  just  large  enough  to 
enclose  what  would  have  been  the  raised  sleeping 
place  in  an  Eskimo  hut.  There  was  no  particular 
entrance  to  this  tent;  we  simply  crawled  in  any- 
where under  the  sides,  which  were  made  of  heavy, 
thick-hair^  winter  skins.  In  this  inner  apartment 
sat  a  young  woman  perfectly  naked,  busy  prepar- 
ing some  sealskin,  The  temperature  indeed  did  not 
call  for  any  excess  of  dothing,  for  though  the  sun 
was  blazing  down  outside  on  the  walrus  hide,  and 
making  the  place  intolerably  hot  already,  there  were 
two  blubber  lamps  burning  in  addition.  There 
was  no  raised  platf arm  or  couch  to  serve  as  a  bed- 
place,  but  the  floor  itself  in  this  apaitmeat  was  made 
of  wood  covered  with  layers  of  walrus  hide.  The 
place  served  as  a  workroom  for  the  women  during 
the  day,  and  a  bedroom  for  the  whole  family  at 
night.  Looking  about  me,  I  realized  that  all  the 
implements  in  sight,  knives  and  other  tools,  even 
the  drums,  were  of  exactly  the  same  type  as  those 
I  had  found  among  the  Eskimos.  It  was  therefore 
the  more  remarkable  to  find  that  I  understood  not  a 
angle  wofd  of  the  language.  The  young  woman 
greeted  m  wife  a  frieodly  smile,  and  went  on  with 
her  work,  and  i^^p^aaioa  now  informed  me  that 
o&iy  womea  wesie  geaeraHy  to  foe  f emnd  in  the 
bouses  during  the  daytime;  they  dM  their  cooking 


374          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

and  needlework  here,  while  the  men  were  out  in  the 
open  air  practically  all  day  long.  When  not  actu- 
ally out  hunting,  they  would  be  outside  somewhere, 
whatever  the  weather  was  like.  We  should  there- 
fore find  no  men  anywhere  indoors  at  this  time  of 
the  day,  and  therefore  found  it  best  to  invite  a 
couple  of  Cossigan's  Tchukchi  friends  in  to  the  little 
hut,  where  his  native  wife,  a  gentle  and  kindly  soul, 
at  once  made  tea  for  us* 

The  one  thing  most  prominent  in  my  mind  at  the 
moment  was  to  find  out  what  the  Tchukchis  and  the 
East  Cape  Eskimos  respectively  thought  of  each 
other,  and  get  their  views  as  to  relations  generally 
between  the  races.  One  old  man  whom  we  ques- 
tioned was  well  up  in  this  subject,  and  began  by 
pointing  out  emphatically  that  his  people  were  the 
original  inhabitants  of  the  country,  and  nothing  to 
do  with  the  Eskimos.  In  which  connection  he  gave 
us  the  following  story: 


"In  a  strange  land,  among  a  strange  people,  there 
lived  a  little  girl  whose  mother  was  always  displeased 
whatever  she  did.  No  matter  what  trouble  she  took 
with  the  tasks  assigned  to  her,  she  was  continually 
being  scolded.  At  last  she  could  bear  it  no  longer, 
aad  ran  away  from  home,  taking  with  her  aH  her  dolls. 
She  walked  and  walked  for  ever  so  far,  till  she  came 
to  a  land  she  did  not  know,  And  here  she  built  her- 
self a  shelter  from  the  wind,  and  decided  to  live 
there.  But  one  night  she  woke  up  and  found  that  all 
her  dolls  had  come  alive;  had  turned  into  real  men 
and  women.  And  from  these,  it  is  said,  sprang  the 
of  the  Tc&ukdhis." 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        375 

Originally,  all  the  Tchukchis  were  hunters,  but 
some  learned  in  course  of  time  to  tame  the  wild 
reindeer,  and  grew  rich;  others,  who  could  not  attain 
to  the  ownership  of  a  herd,  moved  down  to  the  coast 
in  the  hope  of  finding  better  fortune  there.  When 
the  Tchukchis  first  came  down  to  the  coast,  there 
were  no  Eskimos  there.  They  found  all  manner  of 
beasts  in  the  sea;  seal,  whale  and  walrus,  but  it  was 
long  before  they  learned  how  to  hunt  them;  they 
tried  to  make  boats  so  as  to  follow  them  out  at  sea, 
but  their  hunting  implements  were  poor,  and  they 
were  often  hungry,  despite  the  wealth  offered  them 
by  the  sea.  At  last  they  took  to  tnaking  long  sea 
voyages,  along  the  coast  and  far  out  to  sea,  where 
they  could  perceive  land  in  the  farthest  distaace. 
This  was  Diomede  Island.  Here  they  met  a  strange 
people  whose  tongue  they  could  not  understand;  a 
people  who  called  themselves  Eskimos,  and  lived 
likewise  on  the  beasts  of  the  sea.  But  they  had  fine 
weapons  for  their  hunting,  aad  many  curious  ways  of 
Idling  seal  and  whale  and  walrus;  they  had  har- 
poons furnished  with  lines  and  bladders;  they  had 
big  sktr*  boats  f or  long  voyages  and  little  swift  kay- 
aks. But  they  were  a  hostile  people,  with  whom  it 
was  not  wise  to  live  for  any  length  of  time,  and  there 
was  often  war  between  the  two  peoples.  Once  a 
wfaole  boatload  of  Tchukchis  was  attacked  and  slain 
to  ifee  last  man.  This  was  too  much.  AH  the  men 
from  many  villages  assembled  and  sailed  across  the 
sea;  and  whea  the  Eskimos  saw  this  great  number 
apf8*>adhiBg,  they  mad$  iready  for  a  fmttle.  But 
the  Tchukehis  had  not  ocme  to  fight;  they  only 


376          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

proposed  that  an  agreement  should  be  made  between 
them,  so  that  they  could  live  in  peace  and  trade  with 
one  another  thereafter.    They  then  laid  out  all  the 
trade  goods  they  had  brought  with  them;  skins  of 
the  caribou,  and  handsome  white  spotted  skins  of 
the  tame  reindeer;  skins  of  wolf  and  wolverine  they 
kid  out  on  the  rocks  by  the  strangers'  village,  and 
the  Eskimos  saw  all  these  skins,  which  they  them- 
selves needed  but  could  not  get,  because  they  lived 
on  a  little  island  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.    Thus  the 
Tchukchis  offered  to  make  peace,  and  peace  was  made 
between  them,  and  has  never  since  been  broken. 
And  it  was  not  long  before  the  Eskimos  in  turn 
began  to  make  trading  voyages  to  the  coast  of  the 
mainland,   and  finding  excellent  hunting  in  the 
neighborhood  of  East  Cape,  they  determined  to 
build  a  great  village  of  their  own  there.    Thus  the 
two  peoples  became  neighbors,  and  the  Tchukchis 
learned  all  the  Eskimo  methods  of  hunting;  they 
built  fllHn  boats  and  made  lances,  harpoons  and  bird 
arrows,  and  lived  as  the  Eskimos  did.    The  Eskimos 
in  their  turn  wished  to  dress  as  the  Tchukchis  did, 
and  copied  also  the  manner  of  their  houses,  which 
are  built  of  wood  and  walrus  hide.    They  also 
learned  to  cut  their  hair  in  the  same  way.    So  the 
aae  people  learned  of  the  other,  but  each  retained 
its  own  language,  and  only  very  rarely  did  those  of 
oil®  jr&ce  fetennsrfy  with  the  other. 

The  Eskimos,  however,  were  frodoq.  the  first  superior 
oa  tibe  sea^  and  so  they  remained,  The  East  Cape 
Igidmos,  who  hunted  with  the  America**  whafcrs, 
became  famous  tor  their  ^ffl,in^managbg  a  boat; 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        377 

and  in  a  mixed  crew  of  Eskimos  and  Tchukchis,  it 
will  always  be  the  Eskimos  wlio  take  command. 
When  hunting  on  the  ice  in  winter,  if  difficulties  arise, 
it  is  invarably  an  Eskimo  who  is  chosen  to  lead  the 
way* 

All  this  I  had  from  the  mouth  of  the  old  Tdaukchi 
himself, 

According  to  the  Tdhttikchi  tradition,  then,  the 
Eskimos  are  a  new  people  who  came  into  Asia  from 
Alaska  and  the  islands  of  the  Bering  Sea*  This  tra- 
dition accords  entirely  with  the  Eskimos'  own  recol- 
lections of  the  manner  in  which  the  islands  in  ques- 
tion, and  East  Cape  itself,  became  inhabited. 

All  the  old  myths  agree  that  the  first  men  came  to 
Xing  Island,  from  the  interior  east  of  Tellar,  while 
Diomede  Island  was  inhabited  by  people  coming 
from  Tffag  Island  and  Schismareff;  from  here  again 
they  found  tfadr  way  -to  East  Cape,  and  thence  fur- 
ther along  the  coast  of  Siberia  both  iKarth  and  south- 
west. Ruins  of  Eskimo  houses  are  also  found  in 
both  directions.  I  was  naturally  tmable  to  make 
excavations  here,  but  I  did  manage  to  examine  a 
number  of  old  houses  at  Wahlen,  which  were  indu- 
bitably of  Eskimo  origin.  The  only  island  in  the 
Bering  Sea  colonized  by  Eskimos  from  the  Asiatic 
side  is  St.  Lawrence  Island,  called  by  the  Eskimos 
Sk&aq;  this,  however,  is  due  to  the  geographical 
the  island  lying  close  to  the  Siberian  shore, 


so  that  a^entarers  from  East  Cape  would  reach  it 
by  way  of 

I  managed  dtmtig  &rf  short  slay  to  note  d0wn  a 
Hst  of  native  words  showing  that  the  East  Cape  dia- 


378          ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

lect  is  very  like  the  language  spoken  at  St.  Lawrence; 
and  oddly  enough,  both  resemble  mostly  that  spoken 
south  of  Norton  Sound  and  over  the  Yukon  right 
down  to  Bristol  Bay,  differing  considerably  from  the 
form  current  in  the  rest  of  Alaska. 

Until  the  American  Bureau  of  Education  com- 
menced work  in  Alaska,  the  Siberian  Eskimos  were 
greatly  superior  to  the  American,  both  in  conditions 
of  life  and  in  general  estimation;  now,  however,  the 
reverse  is  the  case,  and  those  Siberian  natives  who 
have  been  to  Nome  for  trading  purposes  marvel  at 
the  enormous  progress  made  by  their  fellows  on  that 
side,  while  they  themselves  live  in  a  country  whose 
government  seems  to  take  no  interest  in  them  what- 
ever beyond  getting  their  furs  at  the  lowest  possible 
price. 

This  then  was  the  result  of  my  visit  to  Wahlen  and 
my  encounter  with  the  Soviet. 

On  the  following  day  I  was  taken  back  across  the 
same  dreary  tundra,  and  escorted  on  board  the 
Teddy  Bear  by  the  Chief  of  Police  and  the  kindly 
giant  of  a  constable,  Penkin.  I  was  shown  out; 
requested  to  leave  and  that  forthwith;  but  it  was 
some  consolation  to  reflect  that  my  visit  had  not 
been  altogether  fruitless.  The  information  I  had 
Ipiteed  fitted  in  admirably  with  the  previous  re- 
of  the  expedition,  ^nd  confirmed  the  correct- 
s  of  wtiat  we  had  already  learned. 
We  hoisted  sail  and  got  under  way.  The  ice  lay 
to  shore,  and  we  were  forced  to  He  for  a  little 
off  the  Eskimo  village  at  E&st  Cape.  It  was 


THE  BOLSHEVIK  CONTRAST        379 

like  looking  into  the  promised  land  that  one  was  not 
fated  to  enter.  Novoqaq  is  a  big  village  with  some 
400  souls.  The  jaws  and  ribs  of  whales  were  used 
for  building  material,  as  we  could  see,  not  only  for 
the  houses  but  for  platforms  and  drying  frames  out- 
side. The  houses  themselves  were  built  on  a  slope 
of  the  steep  hillside,  wall  to  wall;  down  on  the  beach 
were  skfa  boats  and  whale  boats  ready  to  put  out 
the  moment  an  animal  was  sighted.  It  was  in  the 
height  of  the  walrus  hunting  season,  and  one  had 
not  long  to  look  with  a  good  glass  before  one  per- 
ceived the  great  heavy  bodies  on  the  ice-floes  as 
they  surged  along  dose  together  to  the  northward. 
The  walrus  were  dosing;  as  if  well  aware  that  the 
boats  could  not  put  out  because  of  the  ice  between, 

Young  men  and  children  came  running  down,  out 
on  the  ke  itself,  and  right  up  to  the  ship,  A  few 
came  on  boaixl  M&  sfcayed  with  us  for  an  kmr; 
they  knew  I  was  not  allowed  to  stay,  and  the  situ- 
ation called  forth  expressions  of  regret  on  both 
sides.  Needless  to  say  I  should  have  been  glad  to 
see  more  of  them,  and  I  could  see  that  they  wotild 
have  welcomed  me  among  themselves, 

However,  there  it  was.  A  few  days  later  we  were 
back  in  Nome.  And  the  Fifth  Thule  Expedition 
was  at  an  end. 

As  I  rowed  on  shore  in  the  dinghy,  I  saw  a  mart 
rtmokig  backward  and  forward  on  the  beach,  wav- 
iag  in  his  hand.  It  was  a  telegram, 

addressed  to  w^&iKf  ®8&  I  opeeed  it  not  without 
some  excitement,  as  to  its  coirteiite.  It  proved  to 
be  from  the  Danish  Foreign  Ministry,  stating  briefly 


ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

that  permission  had  been  obtained  from  the  Soviet 
Republic  for  me  to  land  at  East  Cape, 

Only,  as  fate  would  have  it,  the  information  arrived 
six  weeks  too  late. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

SILA 

AH  true  wisdom  is  only  to  be  found  far  from  the  dwell- 
ings of  men,  in  the  great  solitudes;  and  it  can  osily  be 
attained  through  suffering,  Suffering  and  privation 
are  the  only  things  that  can  open  the  mind  of  man 
to  that  which  is  hidden  from  his  fellows,"  — 
IGJTJGARJUK,  erf  the  Caribou  Eskimos. 


moraing  at  the  end  of  October,  1924,  1  awoke 
for  the  last  time  in  the  little  wooden  dwelling 
on  the  outskirts  of  Nome,  where  I  had  been  living 
for  the  past  month.  By  noon  that  day  I  must  be 
on  board  ffee  big  totirist  steamer  bound  for  Seattle, 
and  these  years  of  life  among  tibe  Eskimos  would  be 
at  an  end, 

I  was  delighted  at  the  work  I  had  beea  able  to 
acxxmrplisli  dttring  that  time,  and  my  thoughts  iiat- 
ttraHy  tamed  once  more  to  a  last  survey  of  tfaevast 
regions  which  we  had  traversed  and  the  people  we 
bad  met.  Otae  could  not  but  fed  some  regret  that 
it  was  all  over  and  done;  a  happy  spell  of  work  that 
w<^dd  never  come  again,  aad  now  mtist  give  place 
to"  tile  hurry  of  returning  to  civilization,  and  the 
®€  trying  to  give  out  again  scaa^- 
tiling  of  aH  I  had  ii&c€3ved. 

Alas,  what  are  t^otfcfe  *m*3a  fife  itself! 

I  went  out  into  the  morotftg  staalight  aad  felt  the 

38* 


382  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

cool  breeze  in  my  face.  The  lakes  were  already 
frozen  over,  and  the  first  sledges  were  driving  over 
the  snowy  plains.  The  town  itself  was  getting  ready 
for  the  coming  winter;  white  men  were  writing  their 
letters  for  the  last  mail  before  the  port  was  closed  by 
ice,  and  the  Eskimos  were  making  preparations  for 
return  to  their  scattered  villages  far  around. 

As  fate  would  have  it,  this  very  morning  I  received 
a  visit  from  an  angakoq ;  one  of  the  few  still  remaining 
in  these  parts.  And  as  he  was  the  last  of  all  I  met, 
it  seems  fitting  to  conclude  with  him* 

His  name  was  Najagneq,  and  I  met  him  for  the 
first  time  in  the  streets  of  Nome,  as  a  fugitive  in  a 
strange  place.  His  appearance  alone  was  enough  to 
create  a  sensation;  among  the  well-dressed  people, 
with  fashionable  shops  on  either  hand,  and  motor 
cars  hurrying  past,  he  looked  like  a  being  from  an- 
other world.  His  little  piercing  eyes  glared  wildly 
around,  his  lower  jaw  hung  down,  swathed  in  a 
bandage  half  undone;  a  man  had  recently  tried  to 
kill  him,  aad  wounded  him  badly  in  the  face. 

Strange  things  were  told  of  him.  He  had  turned 
his  house  into  a  fort  and  waged  war  single-handed 
against  tie  rest  of  his  tribe.  And  against  all  white 
men  as  welL  He  had  already  killed  several  people, 
whim  he  was  captured  by  a  ruse  and  brought  in  to 
Norse,  Here  he  was  Jcept  in  prison  for  a  year,  and 
fepd  jtist  been  refeasedipr  ki&ctf ^evidence  to  <x>n,vict 
him.  Opinions  wefe.  divided  as  to  the  rights  of  the 
case;  some  declared  he  was  simply  half^iiffiad,  and  a 
to  the  community;  others  regarded  him  as 
oa  behalf  of  Ms  people  agaiiist  the  whites, 


SILA  383 

and  against  those  misguided  natives  who  supported 
them.  He  was  forbidden  to  speak  his  own  language 
in  prison,  and  as  he  could  not  speak  any  other,  be 
did  not  speak  at  all  for  a  whole  year.  By  the  eod 
of  that  time,  ten  witnesses  from  his  own  village  had 
been  brought  in  to  give  evidence  against  him,  but 
when  confronted  with  the  accused,  all  without  excep- 
tion dedated  they  had  nothing  to  say.  He  was 
known  to  be  a  powerful  wizard,  and  no  oee  dared  to 
give  evidence  against  htrn.  In  face  of  this,  there  was 
nothing  to  be  done  but  release  him,  and  send  Vmn 
back  to  his  own  place,  on  Nunivak  Island. 

I  managed  to  get  into  touch  with  him  just  before 
his  release,  and  as  I  happened  to  be  working  amoag 
his  fellow  countrymen  at  the  time,  I  had  ample  op- 
portunities for  observation.  He  was  never  tired  of 
telling  stories  of  his  life  in  prison,  and  by  no  means 
disinclined  to  tritsnph  a  little  over  those  of  his  own 
people  who  had  tried  to  rM  tfaeasifres  of  his  #©oe&- 
tricity  by  affiance  with  the  whites,  yet  had  not  dared 
to  say  a  word  when  brought  face  to  face  with  ******  in 
court. 

He  had  found  fresh  food  for  thought*  in  this  great 
town.  Though  accustosned  cmly  to  earthen  huts, 
sledges  and  kayaks,  he  was  not  impressed  by  tibe 
great  houses,  the  steamers  or  the  cars;  but  a  white 
horse  pulling  a  heavy  cart  had  set  his  imagination 
woddng.  And  he  solemnly  iaf  onaed  his  wondering 
feUow-tribesmm  that  the  white  men  in  Nome  had 
killed  frfrn  ten  times  during  the  past  winter;  but  be 
had  had  ten  white  horses  for  his  helping  spirits,  and 
by  sacrificing  one  oil  each  occasion  be  had  managed 


384          A  CROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

to  save  his  life!  For  the  rest,  his  confinement  in  a 
solitary  cell  had  not  crushed  his  spirit.  He,  the  great 
hunter,  had  learned  to  talk  to  the  darkness,  had  van- 
quished solitude  itself,  and  now,  released  at  last,  had 
accustomed  himself  to  the  lack  of  open  air  life,  of 
speech  and  humankind* 

This  10  HP  wizard  was  an  oldish  man,  with  fiery 
eyes,  a  power  of  words  and  a  forceful  utterance 
that  impressed  those  with  whom  he  spoke.  He  was 
curiously  gentle  and  friendly  toward  me,  and  when 
we  were  alone,  was  not  afraid  of  confessing  that  he 
had  been  playing  on  the  credulity  of  his  native 
friends.  He  was  not  a  humbug  really,  but  a  man 
accustomed  to  finding  himself  alone  against  a  crowd, 
and  with  his  own  little  tricks  of  self-defense.  When- 
ever the  talk  turned  on  his  early  visions  and  the  faith 
of  his  fathers,  he  spoke  firmly,  clearly,  and  in  the 
plainest  earnest.  His  words  were  brief  and  to  the 
point;  and  I  suited  myself  to  his  manner  as  far  as  I 
could.  So  that  a  conversation  between  us  would 
be  something  like  this: 

"What  does  man  consist  of?" 

"Of  the  body;  that  which  you  see;  the  name, 
wfaich  is  inherited  from  one  dead;  and  then  of  some- 
tfoing  more,  a  mysterious  power  that  we  call  yutir — 
the  soul,  which  gives  life,  shape  and  appearance 
to  ail  that  Eves."  , 
> ; ;  ?fW!a&t  do  you  think  o£  the  way  men  live?  " 

* They  five  bcofee&ly,  imngtfog  all  tljings  together; 
because  they  cannot  do  one  thing  at  a 
A  great  hunter  must  n0t  be  a;great  lover  of 
But  no  ooe  can  help  it*    Animals  are  as 


SILA  385 

•unfathomable  in  their  nature;  and  it  behooves  us 
who  live  on  them  to  act  with  care.  But  men  bolster 
themselves  up  with  amulets  and  become  solitary  in 
their  lack  of  power.  In  any  village  there  must  be 
as  many  different  amulets  as  possible.  Uniformity 
divides  the  forces;  equality  makes  for  worthlessness/* 

"How  did  you  learn  all  this?" 

"I  have  searched  in  the  darkness,  being  silent  in 
the  great  lonely  stillness  of  the  dark.  So  I  became 
an  angakoq,  through  visions  and  dreams  and  en- 
counters with  flying  spirits.  In  our  forefathers*  day, 
the  angakoqs  were  solitary  men  ;  but  now,  they  are  all 
priests  or  doctors,  weather  prophets  or  conjurers 
producing  game,  or  clever  mejx&ante/lseffing  their 
skill  for  pay.  The  ancients  devoted  their  lives  to 
maintaining  the  balance  of  the  universe;  to  great 
things,  immense,  unfathomable  things." 

"Do  you  believe  in  any  of  these  powers  your- 
self?" 

"  Yes;  a  power  that  we  call  S2a,  which  is  i*0t  to  be 
explained  in  simple  words.  A  great  spirit,  support- 
ing the  world  and  the  weather  and  aH  life  on  earth,  a 
spirit  so  mighty  that  hj$  utterance  to  mankind  is 
not  through  common,  words,  but  by  storm  and  ^jow 
and  rain  and  the  fury  of  the  sea;  all  the  forces  of 
nature  that  men  fear*  But  he  has  also  another  way 
of  utterance,  by  sunlight,  and  calm  of  the  sea,  and 
little  children  innocently  at  play,  themselves  under- 
nothing*  Children  hear  a  soft  and  gentle 


voice,  almost  like  that  of  a  woman,  It  comes  to 
them  in  a  mysteriotts  -way,  but  so  gently  that  they 
are  not  afraid;  they  only  hear  that  some  danger 


386  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

threatens.  And  the  children  mention  it  as  it  were 
casually  when  they  come  home,  and  it  is  then  the 
business  of  the  angakoq  to  take  such  measures  as 
shall  guard  against  the  peril.  When  all  is  well, 
Sila  sends  no  message  to  mankind,  but  withdraws 
into  his  own  endless  nothingness,  apart.  So  he  re- 
mains as  long  as  men  do  not  abuse  Hfe,  but  act  with 
reverence  towards  their  daily  food. 

" No  one  has  seen  Sila;  his  place  of  being  is  a  mys- 
tery, in  that  he  is  at  once  among  us  and  unspeakably 
far  away." 

These  mighty  words  form  a  fitting  dose  to  the 
sketch  I  have  tried  to  give  throughout  this  book  of 
Eskimo  life  and  thought*  Before  many  years  are 
past,  their  religion  will  be  extinct,  and  the  white 
man  will  have  conquered  all,  the  country  and  its 
people;  their  thoughts,  their  visions  and  their  faith. 

I  am  glad  to  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  visit 
these  people  while  they  were  still  unchanged;  to 
have  found,  throughout  the  great  expanse  of  terri- 
tory from  Greenland  to  the  Pacific,  a  people  not  only 
one  in  race  and  language,  but  also  in  their  form  of 
culture;  a  witness  in  itself  to  the  strength  and  endur- 
ance and  wild  beauty  of  human  life. 

Najagaeq's  words  come  as  an  echo  of  the  wisdom 
we  admked  in  the  angakoq  we  met  at  every  stage  of 
tfe  je&smey;  in  the  inhospitable  regions  of  King 
WSEairfs  Land,  in  Aua's  snow-palace  at  Hudson 
Bay  or  m  the  circle  of  the  Caribou  Esktroo  Igjugar- 
whose  woids  are  quoted  a£  tte  liead  of  this 


SILA  387 

A  month  later,  I  stood  on  the  roof  of  a  skyscraper 
looking  out  over  the  stony  desert  of  New  York. 
Miteq  and  Anarulttnguaq  stood  beside  me,  im- 
pressed, as  I  was  myself,  by  the  marvels  we  saw 
about  us. 

"Ah,"  sighed  Anarulunguaq,  "and  we  used  to 
think  Nature  was  the  greatest  and  most  wonderful  of 
all!  Yet  here  we  are  among  mountains  and  great 
gulfs  and  precipices,  all  made  by  the  work  of  human 
hands.  Nature  is  great;  Sila,  as  we  call  it  at  home; 
nature,  the  world,  the  universe,  all  that  is  Sila; 
which  our  wise  men  declared  they  could  hold  in  poise. 
And  I  could  never  believe  it;  but  I  see  it  now.  Na- 
ture is  great;  but  are  not  men  greater?  Those  tiny 
beings  we  can  see  down  there  far  below,  htirrying 
this  way  and  that.  They  live  among  these  stone 
walls;  on  a  great  plain  of  stones  made  with  hands. 
Stone  and  stooe  and  stone — there  is  no  game  to  be 
seen  anywhere,  and  yet  they  manage  to  live  and  find 
their  daily  food*  Have  they  then  learned  of  the 
animals,  since  they  can  dig  down  under  the  earth 
like  marmots,  hang  in  the  air  like  spiders,  fly  like  the 
birds  and  dive  under  water  like  the  fishes;  seemingly 
masters  of  all  that  we  struggled  against  ourselves? 

"I  see  things  more  than  my  mind  can  grasp;  and 
the  only  way  to  save  oneself  from  madness  is  to  sup- 
pose that  we  have  all  died  suddenly  before  we  knew, 
and  that  this  is  part  of  another  life." 

The  Expedition  was  at  an  end.  The  years  which 
to  us  white  men  had  been  full  of  strange  happenings 
and  experiences,  were  just  everyday  life  to  our  two 
Greenlanders.  It  was  their  turn  now;  their  expedi- 


388  ACROSS  ARCTIC  AMERICA 

tion  was  beginning.  But  as  I  showed  them  the  mar- 
vels of  this  new  world,  my  thoughts  were  constantly 
returning  to  the  people  we  had  left,  to  the  men  anc^ 
women  who  had  spoken  so  simply  and  yet  so  powei£ 
fully  of  the  greatest  and  the  smallest  things.  Hun- 
ger and  feasting,  happiness  and  adversity,  the  daily 
round  and  the  great  moments  of  life — they  spoke  of 
all  with  true  and  simple  feeling.  So  here;  face  to 
face  with  a  chaos  and  confusion  of  marvels,  Anaru- 
lunguaq  found  the  very  words  for  all  it  meant : 
Nature  is  great;  but  man  is  greater  still.